Big Bugs and Dead Astronauts: The Joys of a Non-Human Narrator
Fresh ideas can be learned from books told from a different perspective.
Storyville: What is Head-Hopping and Why Should You Avoid It?
Tips for avoiding head-hopping in your fiction.
Clarity vs. Experimentation: A Letter To Myself
By Peter Derk
Does your work have a worthwhile story underneath the experiment? In other words, are you going to pay off the work a reader does to understand what’s going on?
Storyville: Young Protagonists—MG vs. YA vs. Adult
Some advice for writing young protagonists for Middle Grade, YA, and adult fiction.
Storyville: Leaving Room for the Reader in Your Fiction
Thoughts and advice on how to leave room for your readers when writing fiction.
Storyville: Death in Fiction
In:
American Psycho, Character, Death, Jack Ketchum, John Steinbeck, Narrator, Plot, Storyville, Theme
Death in fiction — who, what, when, where and why.
Consider This: Undecidability
In:
Literary Devices, Narrator, Rosemary's Baby, The Great Gatsby, The Haunting of Hill House, unreliable narrator, Word Play
Chuck Palahniuk talks about the unresolved, and how undecidability is always more scary than simply being told the answer.
Storyville: Fiction As Film—Writing Scenes That Are Visual
How can your fiction be as visual and engrossing as a film? Here are some suggestions.
Storyville: 15 Unconventional Story Methods
Here are 15 unconventional methods of telling a story. Why not stretch yourself?
This is Not a Checklist: How to Write a Story
In:
flashback, Info dumps, List, Narrator, Plot, POV, subtext, tense, unreliable narrator, world-building
Some things to have taken into consideration while writing your story. Not rules, just after-the-fact guidelines.
The Benefits of Free Indirect Discourse
Writers who find themselves wrestling with point-of-view problems may want to consider a technique that combines the best of two narrative modes.
Write What You Don’t Know
Of all the rules that apply to fiction writing, perhaps none is more misleading than the common, banal adage that you should “write what you know.”
That’s So Meta: Writing A Story About Writing A Story
In:
Cervantes, Craft, Dave Eggers, Don Quixote, Literary Devices, metafiction, Narrator, nonfiction, Plot, POV, Structure
When narrators escape--a discussion of metafiction.
The Art Of The Rewrite
A true rewrite is not just editing, proofing or copy-editing, but a complete re-imagining of the work. Here’s a four-part process to fortify writers with a successful re-writing plan that works.
“I tell the truth, even when I lie.”: A Discussion of Unreliable Narrators
Can your narrator be trusted?? Reliable narrators are the norm, but unreliable narrators are great to read and fun to write.
Out of Order: A Discussion of Nonlinear Narrative Structure
In:
Craft, Jennifer Egan, Literary Devices, Little Red Riding Hood, Memento, NaNoWriMo, Narrator, Non-linear, Structure
A Discussion of Non-linear Narrative Structure
Which P.O.V Is Right For Your Story?
A list of the different modes of point of view, with a breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Submerging the “I”
First-person narration, for all its immediacy and power, becomes a liability if your reader can't identify with your narrator. Discover Chuck's secret method for making a first-person narrator less obtrusive. Bonus: This essay includes the story 'Guts.'
