Proximity Do our characters have to be two thousand miles apart, or three miles apart? If we are trying to convey a sense of distance, remember that distance is relative. Let’s say that our …
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Simplicity
Forward, he cried From the rear And the front ranks died. Pink Floyd (Us and Them) We can tell a whole world in a sentence. The rewrite is where we polish our prose until it …
Dilemma: The Source of Your Story
At the heart of every story lies a dilemma. It is not a question of whether or not your protagonist has a dilemma, but rather, how effectively it has been explored. By exploring your protagonist’s …
Writing the Forbidden
“Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are so ingrained in our society we rarely stop to think about it. I can write anything I want – dark fiendish plots without fear. I can criticize the FBI, …
Backstory
"The past is prologue." - William Shakespeare When we are stuck, it is inevitably because some part of our backstory is unclear. Backstory refers to what happened before our story began. A clearer …
Choice
Why do we write? Why do we spend months, years, even decades engaged in the solitary act of creating a world on paper with no assurance than anyone will read it, except perhaps our immediate family, …
The Arc of a Scene
“I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.” – Plato In the rewrite, we seek to make our story as …
Staying Connected to the Source
"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination." - Albert Einstein The rewrite uses the left and right brain simultaneously. …
Humor in Tragedy
(Image from Life is Beautiful, 1997) If you’re going to write a tragedy, infuse your story with humor. Humor pulls us towards the characters and makes us care. It also ensures that your ending will …
Conflating Characters
Sometimes we’ve written characters that don’t belong in our story because their function is redundant. Conflict might arise that don’t add anything new to the story. In fact, the conflict might …