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How and when you choose to kill off a character can make or break a novel. It’s also incredibly difficult for authors, being a little like purposefully breaking one of your own toys. When done right, a character’s death can break a reader’s heart, but if done wrong it’ll just exhaust their patience. In this article, I’ll get to the bottom of what makes a character’s death resonant, and will …
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Science fiction is one of the most popular genres in literature, and certainly the one with the most cultural influence. So what is it about sci-fi stories that readers love so much, and how can authors use that knowledge to create their own sci-fi masterpieces? In this article I’ll be exploring why sci-fi is so influential, and identifying the 3 golden rules that lead to a great sci-fi story. Of …
[Read more...] about The 3 Golden Rules Of Writing A Science Fiction Book
A plot hole is an absence in the narrative that spoils the story. Usually plot holes are the absence of a ‘how’: a character suddenly knows something with no explanation, or the cast makes a seemingly impossible journey between chapters. Of course the absence of a great deal of explanation is necessary in any story, it’s only when that absence of explanation negates the reader’s suspension of …
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A great plot twist guarantees your story will never really leave its readers. Decades after they finish your book they’ll still look back on that moment the truth was revealed and feel a shiver of satisfaction. Of course when they go wrong, twists can do exactly the opposite, leaving your reader feeling disappointed and betrayed. So what separates an amazing plot twist from a terrible one? In …
[Read more...] about The Secret Art Of Writing A Surprising Plot Twist
Tension proves just how engaged readers can be with literature. To take words on a page and translate them into that urgent, nail-biting worry requires great writing and a true emotional engagement from the reader. Tense scenes leave the reader both desperate to turn the page and afraid to. Tension is the most immediate form of reader engagement and one of the most visceral. But how do you …
[Read more...] about 10 Facts That Tell You How To Use Tension In Your Story
At university, we used to call it “WABing”—Work Avoidance Behavior—all the random excuses we would think of to avoid studying. Let’s see, there was washing the dishes before they were removed by cleaning staff in haz-mat suits, cooking up gourmet meals with a packet of rice, a lemon and some cheese and, best of all, removing the gherkins from Big Macs and throwing them onto the ceiling to see if …
[Read more...] about Writing Avoidance Behavior: Here’s How To Overcome It
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