The recipe for a short story is so simple, yet it is one of the hardest things to craft well. There are only two essential ingredients for a story, a well-developed character and a crisis. Within the word limit of your tale, you must make us understand your character, give him or her an issue … Continue reading What’s Your Crisis? – The Essential Component of a Short Story
Tag: writing tips
Flash Fiction – Managing Story Length
Here is a very good article on the hows of writing flash fiction. In particular, the author describes how to keep your story short but complete. Flash fiction seems to be a big deal these days. Many online publishers are looking for flash submissions. It it certainly worth it to read some tips on the … Continue reading Flash Fiction – Managing Story Length
The Insecurities of Authors Using Real-World Settings
Happy Holidays to all! Being in the Far East, Christmas has already fully passed for me. So it's time to get back to work. I am currently working my way through Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. It is a fun little story, but the writing irks me in places. I have never done a Gaiman book before, so … Continue reading The Insecurities of Authors Using Real-World Settings
My Writing Space (Or How Not to Follow Stephen King’s Advice)
Fortune favors the bold, or so they say. I have been reading Stephen King's great treatise on the craft, On Writing. While I do intend to extract and discuss many key points of the book later, there is one bit that is likely not to make the cut for me: the discussion of proper writing spaces. This … Continue reading My Writing Space (Or How Not to Follow Stephen King’s Advice)
More on First-Person Narrators
Bards and Sages: First-Person Narrative Pitfalls Here is another interesting discussion on the problems with first-person narrators. However, I personally disagree with the last point. There is no necessity that the first-person narrator must have a logical means to deliver the story to the reader. That is wholly unnecessary meta-thinking. The story is not connected … Continue reading More on First-Person Narrators
Pratchett’s Wintersmith – The Concept of Reader Baggage as Explained Through Sarcasm
I have been working my way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Wintersmith. As usual, it is a great tale, well-written with strong characters. One scene has stood out to me as being especially humorous, but also useful as commentary on writing. In the scene, lead character Tiffany—an almost 13-year-old witch—discovers a book on her bed and … Continue reading Pratchett’s Wintersmith – The Concept of Reader Baggage as Explained Through Sarcasm
Pratchett’s Thud! – Part 2, the Ladies Night Out Scene
Terry Pratchett is a master of fiction, and his Discworld novel Thud! is a masterpiece. While I am not fully though the book, I felt compelled to share this commentary while it is fresh in my mind. One scene that stood out to me as representative of Pratchett's humor and brilliant characters was the scene in Thud! where the … Continue reading Pratchett’s Thud! – Part 2, the Ladies Night Out Scene
Discussion – Lofty Writing
I’ve decided to take a break from hammering out flash stories to talk about writing, specifically the kind of writing I like and the kind I don’t like. Merriam-Webster defines LOFTY as “showing the insulting attitude of people who think that they are better, smarter, or more important than other people.” I find that this … Continue reading Discussion – Lofty Writing
Tools: Plume Creator
I started this blog while in the middle of writing my first book. The tool I was using to write that book was the awesome, open-source Plume Creator. This program offers a simple way to organize your writing. You can organize by books, acts, chapter and scenes (of course you can rename these as you … Continue reading Tools: Plume Creator
The Journey Begins…
Something I have learned during my many years as a writer is that the very act of writing inherently pushes you forward on the path of the story you are creating. New ideas spring forth, concepts are changed, characters grow and evolve. It is much like taking a personal journey; what you expect with … Continue reading The Journey Begins…
JM Williams 