Articles for Writers
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How to Write Three-Dimensional Characters
“The protagonist feels a little one-note.”
“The characters feel flat.”
Maybe you’ve heard it from a critique partner, or a beta reader, or you just can’t shake the feeling that your character doesn’t seem as real as some of your favorite protagonists. What gives?
Characters feel real when they act like real people: unpredictably.
Dialogue vs. Exposition in a Scene
Readers are now less tolerant of large blocks of text setting scenes or laying background for pages on end. But too much dialogue can make a reader feel disconnected from the fictional world. How do we strike the right balance?
By making the reader feel like an active participant in the story instead of an observer. They need to witness both what is said and what is left unsaid to feel the tension in the scene.
How to Use Scenes to Build Plot
Ever read a story where it was clear the character did something because that’s what the story (i.e. author) wanted them to? It’s annoying, and readers do notice.
The best stories feel like the character is real, making their own choices as they navigate the story.
So how do we make a fictional world feel real to a reader?
One word: Consequences.
Using Scenes to Establish Setting
Setting is critical in the first few lines so the reader is immediately oriented in the story and can begin to imagine the scene playing out. Without enough detail, readers cannot imagine the world that you — the author — can see so clearly in your head.
A scene needs to happen someplace, but if we use that location and the environment around the main character to work against their goals, stories can reach new depths...
Basic Writing Craft: The Power of Mastering Paragraph Breaks
Well-placed paragraph breaks are as important to writing as the punctuation at the end of a sentence. Here are 3 ways to affect reader emotions through the simplicity of intentional paragraph breaks.
How to Avoid a Boring Story
If you want to write a fast-paced and engaging novel, you can’t let the reader get bored. But constant action can be just as boring as no action at all. Here’s how to use reaction and down time to up the emotional ante and make your story impossible to put down.