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Tips: Characters, Plot
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Tipsheet Articles on Characters and Plotting
For your convenience, we've gathered together a number of the tipsheet articles that focus on characters or plot.
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Just Too Convenient
Marg McAlister
Last year, I critiqued several scenes in one week for a writer. In two of them, she'd made life much too easy for her characters. It's time to share a few tips on how to make life a little more INconvenient for your story people! We'll look at four main areas of 'convenience'... . . . keep reading
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Effective Character Description Part 2
Marg McAlister
When you're looking out at the world through the eyes of the scene's viewpoint character, how do you show the reader what your character is like? We're going to look at three different ways of exploring a viewpoint character's looks and personality. . . . keep reading
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Effective Character Description Part 1
Marg McAlister
We all like to make our characters as three-dimensional as possible, so that the reader sees them as real people. So why is it that - despite our best efforts - sometimes our characters STILL don't come to life? . . . keep reading
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Putting Yourself in Your Stories
Marg McAlister
Every story you write will be filtered through your own experiences and opinions. It's virtually impossible to hide your own likes, dislikes, prejudices and biases. You'll find that your character . . . keep reading
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How to Use Sub-plots
Marg McAlister
If your book is suffering from the dreaded 'sagging middle' syndrome, it's likely that you either don't have a subplot or you haven't paid enough attention to your subplots. Some writers really wrestle with subplots. Either they're not entirely sure what a subplot IS, or they can't think of one that will blend well with the main story... . . . keep reading
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Plotting Problems - Episodic Writing
Marg McAlister
The rejection letter says: "Your story, on the surface, appears to be well-told and has appealing characters. However, the writing is episodic; the story lacks direction." You frown. Huh? The story lacks direction? How could it? Your main character is on a quest; how much more of a direction could you have than that? Clearly, this editor doesn't know what she's talking about... . . . keep reading
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The Many Paths to Plotting
Marg McAlister
You can read six books on plotting and come up with six different methods... and that's only a fraction of what's possible. The bottom line is, and always will be, DO WHAT WORKS. . . . keep reading
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Ann Harth
