Welcome to whatever day we’re on in our A-Z series. Today we’re gonna get violent. Sort of. There’s a famous quote flying around in writing communities. Many writers think it was courtesy of Stephen King, probably because he was quoting Faulkner when he said it and more people know King. Behold. The quote is more…
For today’s post in the A-Z series, we’re taking a step back from the guts of story and looking at something that gets in the way: crutch words. I’m listing them under J for Just because “just” is one of my crutch words, AKA those words we authors get too comfortable with and overuse. They…
Today’s topic is one in the series I’ve been simultaneously anticipating and dreading. Because it’s easy to execute yet hard to describe. Today is all about humor (or humour, depending on where you are in the world). This blog started as a humor blog a year before I wrote anything in a novel. Click on…
A couple of weekends ago I finally saw Logan. And while it was very well made, it freaked me the hell out. The fact that it’s the first X-Men movie to be rated R because of extreme violence was no secret, but being an avid Marvel fan, I wanted to see it anyway. I’m glad…
Are we digging the alphabetic layout of the A to Z challenge? Sure, it’s a little Sesame Street, but we may end up with something comprehensive by the end. 😉 Anyway, welcome to day 5, where we’ll be discussing external motivation. People (and characters) can be motivated for a number of reasons. We eat because…
Welcome to Day 4 of our story-oriented Blogging A to Z challenge. Today, we’ll be picking apart dialogue, which feels like it should be easy, doesn’t it? Here’s the thing: dialogue can make or break a story. No pressure, though. Good dialogue weaves seamlessly into the narrative. Bad dialogue… Well, bad dialogue makes readers close the book.…
For day three of our series, we’ll be discussing one of my favorite story elements, because it makes the story world go ’round: conflict. In most basic terms, conflict is a fight. I talked about types of conflict, including man vs. man and man vs. self, in this post. In this post, I described how…
In the past few years, I’ve seen bloggers participate in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge. After picking a theme, they post something about that theme every day during the month of April (not including Sundays). I’d considered doing it, but this is the first year I’ve actually done the necessary work of picking a…
This post popped up in my Facebook memories yesterday. Now, let’s get a closer look. Aside from the obvious difference in word choice/reading level, there is a noticeable difference in length. The marketers must think guys don’t have time to read their body wash labels before they buy. For the record, I’ve never read a…
Last weekend, I published this post about why we stop reading books. Many of you submitted insightful comments, and as I read through them I realized something: many of our “reading pet peeves” can be boiled down to the author doing one of two things. Not bad, huh? Just avoid doing two things and you’re…
Allison Maruska 