How To Build a Better Story

Your Novel Needs a Second Story

February 12, 2013
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One of the keys of a successful novel is often the presence of two (sometimes more) major storylines. Unfortunately, as a book doctor/novel editor, I often see manuscripts-in-progress that are just too stingy in this regard. I recently read a review of a movie that addressed this very point. Reviewing the movie Warm Bodies, Mick…

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Do You Practice Creative Contemplation?

January 15, 2013
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Writers, how patient are you? Do you really listen to what your stories are trying to say before you try to tell them to others? Do you give your stories enough time to grow creatively, to blossom into their fullest form? I read a lot of blogs and group chats about self-publishing. One of the…

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Six Writing Tips from J.R.R. Tolkien

December 8, 2012
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Are you a fan of The Hobbit? A Lord of the Rings geek? Perhaps you just enjoy a good story, well told. If you’re a writer, here are some tips drawn from Tolkien’s work. Even if they don’t magically transform you into a writer whose work develops a worldwide cult-like following, as did Professor Tolkien’s…

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The Cat Sat on the Mat – John le Carré on Plotting

November 10, 2012
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John le Carré is the pen name of David John Moore Cornwell, the British author of espionage novels, including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Russia House; The Tailor of Panama; The Constant Gardener, and many others. He worked briefly for British intelligence, MI5 and MI6, in the…

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Are You a Plotter or a Plunger?

October 23, 2012
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To plot or not to plot? My advice: It’s wise to make a plan before you embark on a long journey. (Especially for the crazy road trip known as NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, November’s annual caffeine-fueled, group-dare exercise soon to be undertaken yet again by thousands of avid writers.) You’ve heard, perhaps, the famous…

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Simplicity and Good Storytelling

February 26, 2012
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“Once upon a time” is such a simple beginning. Yet so effective. Is this a contradiction? No . . . not if you understand that true simplicity is not easy. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said: “I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life…

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Ivan Doig – the Connection of Place and Imagination

October 27, 2011
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If you are an emerging writer, note: A strong sense of place is a real key to developing the richly delicious details that good fiction needs. Here’s a quote that hits the nail on the head about the role of a sense of place from the website of a great writer, Ivan Doig. One last…

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A Wild and Overflowing Thing – How Important Is a Plot to a Novel?

September 27, 2011
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Hey, I’m not disparaging the helpfulness of a good plot. It may be the skeleton of a novel; it connects each piece to the next. (Sing along: “The shin-bone’s connected to the knee-bone, the knee-bone’s connected to the thigh-bone . . .”) But one of the reasons I wrote How To Write Your Best Story…

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The Role of the Story’s Reader

September 1, 2011
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It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear. —Italo Calvino (in the fictional voice of Marco Polo), in Invisible Cities Calvino is expressing something very important about stories. They do not live in the head or the voice of the teller (or the writer). Good stories are shared. A good…

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6-Word Stories Aren’t Really Stories. Sorry, Mr. Hemingway.

August 16, 2011
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Contrary to what some like to claim . . . 6-word “stories” aren’t really stories. Sorry. The myth began, I believe, with a blithe (and clearly inaccurate) statement by Ernest Hemingway that this 6-word “story” was possibly “his best prose ever”: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Okay, that’s interesting. It’s a concept. It’s a…

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