What the reader needs to know…

I am still struggling with the WIP. After going to COsine in Colorado Springs, I became convinced that I’m starting in the wrong place and doing too much scene-setting, but when I try to revise I bog down in considerations of what the readers need to know,

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What’s free and what isn’t

Most writers get something “for free” – some part of writing that they don’t have to work at to get it to an acceptable level. Sometimes it’s something general: plot development, emotionally complex characterization, solid background, an intuitive grasp of story structure. Sometimes it’s something more narrowly

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Ending after ending after ending

Stories are full of endings. From the ending of a multi-book plot arc to the ending of a sentence, writers face the same sorts of questions over and over: Have I said everything I need to say? Will this flow better if it’s longer or shorter? Does

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Borrowing

Borrowing One of the shortcuts a writer can use for any of the Big Three story elements (plot, characters, setting/backstory) is to borrow them from somewhere else. “Somewhere else” covers a lot of ground; the caveat is that if one is going to borrow from anything that

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What’s a Turning Point?

Turning points confuse me. Turning points confuse me. Or perhaps it’s the way people talk about them that confuses me. I’m used to the fact that writing terminology isn’t standardized, and often can mean more than one thing. (“What’s the viewpoint?” can, for instance, mean “Which character’s

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