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Active and Reactive Decisions
One of the key functions of a protagonist is to drive the story forward. Her decisions are the ones that matter the most, since they are what moves the plot along. At least, that’s what we’re taught.
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Idea You Can Steal 72: Your Dead Car
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here is one final story idea you can play with as you wait for 2023.
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My Writing Style
For as long as I’ve been submitting my work for peer review — both through writers’ forums and as part of creative writing classes — I’ve encountered two main types of helpful critique. One type are people pointing out legitimate problems with the draft. The second type are insistences where the critiquer disagrees with the…
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Writing Prompts 58
It’s the holiday season. Here are some treats for your muse.
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How Do I…? Thoughts
It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these craft posts. This time, I want answer a question I’ve encountered numerous times. How do you format a characters’ thoughts? How do you incorporate them into your story?
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The Writer’s Mindset
Weeks ago, I was doing some housekeeping on my computer — cleaning out old files, archiving things on an external hard drive, those sorts of things. In the process, I came across the fragments of a project that I had planned to help me in my day job. It’s a project that will never come…
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Stop Trying to be Unique
Everyone wants to be special. We believe that, if we’re special, then no one can replace us. If we become irreplaceable, then we’re guaranteed love and acceptance — or at least sympathy and attention.
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Writing Prompts 57
Fall’s only a couple weeks away. Here’s some new writing prompts to enjoy with your last glass of lemonade and first Pumpkin Spice coffee of the year.
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Friday Flash 17: Sanctuary
Loneliness — that’s what it is. That feeling nibbling your ears and tugging your hair. The desire to have someone next to you. Company is the one thing you lack on this beach. You don’t know how long you’ve been here. The darkness does funny things to time. But it must have been long enough…
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Idea You Can Steal 71: Mystery in the Piano
I’ve been wondering how to preface this post, and all I can think of is “Resolution feels so good.”