Everyone hates an info-dump, right? We don’t want to know all of the characters’ motives right from the get-go, and we don’t Continue reading “How To Avoid the Dreaded Info-Dump”
Tag: Writing Tips
Roleplaying and Character Development
First, an explanation of roleplaying
Roleplaying, in short, is when usually when you and another author (or other authors) put your characters together in a situation and see what happens and how the characters react and interact. There are two main ways that roleplaying is done. One is more like you’re writing a story together; it’s written like a story and you simply take turns writing out scenes from your character’s POV (in third person, so it doesn’t get confusing). The other way, which I personally prefer because it’s looser, is to write it more like Continue reading “Roleplaying and Character Development”
How to Write Grief, Stress, and Overwhelm
We’ve all experienced something like it. The loss of a friend or family member, a tough day at work, too much to do all in one day… There are many things in life that stress us out or make us feel overwhelmed. But how do you write characters feeling these things in your books?
Draw from your own experiences
Start with what you know. Think about how you react to Continue reading “How to Write Grief, Stress, and Overwhelm”
Character Motivation – Connecting the Past to the Present
Character backstories can sometimes be glossed over when you’re designing a character, because you get so tied up in the now, but really, the past and present of your character are far more closely linked than you might realize. You can’t just skip backstory, because it’s an integral part of who your character is now and how their character motivation came to be.
Past and present are interlinked in a number of ways when it comes to character, but there are three sections that I think are the most closely tied together: nature, fears, and relationships. Continue reading “Character Motivation – Connecting the Past to the Present”
My Top 5 Tips for New Writers
When I think back to my early writing—the really early stuff, back when I thought that five pages was long enough to be a novel—I see a gigantic mess. Flat characters, rushed plots, things that little seven-year-old me didn’t think through that are now really creepy (like the fact that one of my characters accidentally had two wives), and fairytale romances. I have a document of those old stories that’s titled “The Cheese Factory.”
I can’t save you from cheesy stories or flat characters—and honestly you’ll run into those through your entire writing career Continue reading “My Top 5 Tips for New Writers”