This will be an odd one in the writing guides because it’s not just for novel writing, but also for articles and blogging. It’s about Voice. In articles and non-fiction this is the author’s voice, the quirks, slang and turns of phrase that make readers quickly identify who the writer is without even looking for … Continue reading Writing a Novel – The Voice
In past “Writing a Novel” guides I’ve spoken of the process to create your first novel, how to handle certain scenes and how to focus on the emotional impact. But I realised there was one aspect of the creation process that I hadn’t touched on: Sequels. If your novel is a single self-contained story with … Continue reading Writing a Novel – Sequels
As with every other Writing a Novel guide, this week I’m giving you a sample showing some of the examples I gave on the article. As I mentioned in the Emotional Impact guide: But the hardest emotional connection to form with your readers is Fear. A book has never scared me, because while the images … Continue reading Writing a Novel – Emotional Impact – Sample
One of the hardest things writers have to do is engage the reader, make them feel as if the world they’re exploring through your words is their world, so they become invested in the characters’ fate and feel their joy, happiness and sadness. I have read works where a single chapter made me cry and … Continue reading Writing a Novel – Emotional Impact
This is a different kind of Writing Guide article. To understand how it affects your writing, you need to first know how it influences you on a personal level. So you’ll forgive this first segment of self-exploration.
In the past, I’ve explained my/the Novel Writing process, and have gone in depth with a genre and a type of scene. But as I look at the possible subjects to talk about in this next article, I realised something: written Horror doesn’t work on me. I’ve never been scared by a Stephen King novel. … Continue reading Writing a Novel – Horror
This is a different issue in the Novel Writing guide. I’ve gone over the process of writing one, how to handle editing and even how to work with action scenes. This time however I’m looking at an entire genre. Fantasy is by far my favourite, and in years of reading and writing it, there are … Continue reading Writing a Novel – Fantasy
A few weeks ago I wrote you about how to handle action scenes in novels, in terms of length, details and overall pace and flow. At the end of the article, and as always, I mentioned I’d be providing samples for it, an example of a short scene and a long one, to show the … Continue reading Writing a Novel – Action Scene Samples
Last week we had the last of the Editing Samples, and so I’ve gone over the First Draft, Second and Streamlining. As mentioned in those articles, I skipped ahead a bit. Those scenes could’ve done with considerably more effort, but it was enough to demonstrate how a prose might evolve through several editing passes. As … Continue reading Writing a Novel – Action Scenes
Last time I gave you the second draft for the opening scene based on the Melvin Backbreaker outline I wrote weeks ago. As it was a second draft, I cleaned up a few mistakes, changed the scene flow and added a new sub-plot. Let’s go over the changes.
