Tag: generating dramatic tension

Using Backstory Effectively

  All righty. So we have been discussing “flashbacks” and I have been working hard to pull this blanket term apart because not everything that shifts back in time is the dreaded “training wheel flashback” that make us editors break out in hives. New writers love to shift back and forth in time because they …

Continue reading

Why Flashbacks Ruin Fiction

All of us will feel a NEED to explain why a character is moody, angry, broken, bawdy, whatever. DON’T. Resist the urge to EXPLAIN. In fact, if readers don’t know WHY, they will want to turn pages to find out WHY.

Anatomy of a Best-Selling Story 3—Opposition

Ah, structure. We are discussing the fundamentals of story. No skeleton and our story is a puddle of primordial adverb ooze.

The Difference Between "Flawed" Characters and "Too Dumb to Live"

Which is more important? Plot or character? Though an interesting discussion—sort of like, Could Ronda Rousey take a Klingon with only her bare hands?—it isn’t really a useful discussion for anything other than fun. To write great fiction, we need both. Plot and characters work together. One arc drives the other much like one cog …

Continue reading

Make Readers Suffer—Great Fiction Goes for the GUTS

What is the BIG question here? What is my character REALLY after? What will my story problem CHANGE about this character? What will it answer?