Writing on Point

A Better Way to Craft Fiction Blog

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The writer you want to be vs The writer you are

The writer you want to be vs The writer you are

Following up on chapter one insights, these next three posts will focus on three specific aspects of the beginning of a story.

Your first chapter is the first words your writers will hear. As they read them, they’ll be attuning themselves to the story they’re about to experience. There are many details that will go into a first chapter, but there are three things that must be done deliberately…

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First Chapters are like First Impressions

The first chapter isn’t necessarily more difficult in a technical sense of writing, but it is one of the most scrutinized pieces of a story.

First chapters are important, which might seem kind of obvious since they’re where a story starts off. But their importance is not just structural. First chapters are where we introduce ourselves as writers to readers, and they’re where we can make the first…

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First Chapter Workshop Recap

There will be a series of blog posts, starting with this one, that are all about editing your first chapter.

The workshop this past weekend was a great success, and thanks again to those who were able to come out. I put together a quick downloadable sheet with the major highlights from the seminar.

Here it is!

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Exploring Scene Sequence Writing for NaNoWriMo

Exploring Scene Sequence Writing for NaNoWriMo

The goal for NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words in 30 days – which works out to ~1,667 words per day.

For those familiar with the trials and tribulations of achieving NaNo’s goal, it’s common that there are some days when more than 1,667 words will be written and some days where there will be less.

Which is one of the reasons why scenes make a practical target for any given day of writing.

In both novels…

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You Do You - Being a writer should only mean being yourself

You Do You – Being a writer should only mean being yourself

Lately, I’ve had a huge issue with second guessing myself. I’ve been busying doing things for Crimson Melodies and for my family, and this site somehow got pushed down on the priority list. It was mostly due to necessity, but that doesn’t stop me from wondering if maybe I could have found a way to keep up with blogging once a week despite how busy things have been lately…

Hence the topic of this…

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The Charge that Amazon is Promoting Piracy and Devaluing Books

The Charge that Amazon is Promoting Piracy and Devaluing Books

There has been a huge kerfuffle about a recent (March 1st) change in Amazon’s seller policies regarding third-party sellers and “new” books.

You can read more the-sky-is-falling articles on Huffington Post, at the Huffington Post, and at Publishing Perspectives.

After you do that, join with me in saying this:

Amazon is not promoting piracy.

And we really need to stop saying that it is.

I’m going…

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Getting Out of Your Own Way as a Writer

Getting Out of Your Own Way as a Writer

There’s a lot of areas where the idea of wanting to be a writer versus actually being a writer overlap. At the end of the day, wanting to be a writer is all about trying. Being a writer is all about doing.

This post is inspired, in part, by this article on Medium.com. You can go read it (I encourage you to) but we’ll go over the gist below. Seven differences between amateur and professional…

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http://writingonpoint.com/story-plot-course/ 

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Author Mistake: Shaking your audience's faith in the Protagonist (a lesson from Iron Fist)

Author Mistake: Shaking your audience’s faith in the Protagonist (a lesson from Iron Fist)

Netflix and Marvel have been teaming up to offer some lesser known comic heroes and heroines a chance at the spotlight. They’ve given us Daredevil (2 seasons), Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and now, Iron Fist.

Say what you will about the first three because although they have flaws, they definitely have a solid story structure and clear protagonist character arcs. It set a high bar for their…

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Top 10 Writing Craft posts of 2016

Top 10 Writing Craft posts of 2016

Last year was Writing on Point’s debut, and it had some notable moments. These were the top writing craft posts from 2016.

10) Tension, Fear, and Consequences in Fiction Writing

Tension is one of the best ways to keep readers turning pages. This post is all about making sure every scene uses tension to highlight the stakes the protagonist is facing, big or small.

original post: tension, fear,…

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3 Paths to Publish

3 Paths to Publish

Even before you type “the end” writers tend to think – or at least daydream – about what they want to do next. The “now what?” answer has changed a lot the last decade. There is no longer any best, singular path to publish and get your books into readers’ hands.

Here are the top options:

Submit queries to agents as a stepping stone to getting your book into the market via a traditional publisher.

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The difference between a Quest, an Adventure, and a Journey

The difference between a Quest, an Adventure, and a Journey

Endings come in several flavors, as do the core aspects of plot in every story. Of those, there are many variations that find their way onto the pages of books. The ones we’ll be covering today are three umbrellas that usually cover the plots and their variations: the differences between a quest, journey, and adventure.

The Quest is one of the core aspect plots, so to be clear, this post makes a…

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It's all about the Characters (because they say so...)

It’s all about the Characters (because they say so…)

Trust your reader. This should be a sign hanging somewhere near your writing station, next to one that says “I am a writer” because they’re both important. There are many aspects of writing where trust should be applied, but today we’re going to focus on one in particular.

When it comes to the characters in your stories, trust is vital. That includes deliberately not spelling out everything in…

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Balancing Conflict and Continuity for a Better Story

Balancing Conflict and Continuity for a Better Story

There are four key elements we’re going to focus on. Characters. Conflict. Execution. Continuity.

Those elements are linked together and depend on each other to get your story from start to finish. It’s important to realize that they also work in layers.

Characters are what we expect, the actors in the story. They’re the good guys, the bad guys, the little guys, and all the other guys in between.

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Creating a System for Continuity in Stories

Creating a System for Continuity in Stories

Whether you are writing a short-story, a standalone novel, or a series, continuity matters. Stories that are shorter or have smaller scopes have less potential for continuity problems but are not immune. Learning how to spot continuity errors – and having a method for keeping track of them – is an important skill for any writer to have.

Continuity is defined as, “The unbroken and consistent…

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Eliminate Crutch Words, Stand Your Writing on its Own

Eliminate Crutch Words, Stand Your Writing on its Own

No matter what project you work on, no matter how many books you have finished or how many stories you have started, every writer uses crutch words. Individually, crutch words are nothing special. It is their frequency and repetition that earn them a special distinction, and knowing what your own crutch words are is an important step for becoming a better writer.

Before we talk about how to…

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Tis the Season [for awkward conversations at Holiday Parties]

Tis the Season [for awkward conversations at Holiday Parties]

[su_scheduler months=”12, 1″ years=”2016-2017″] [su_box title=”Editing Workshops!” style=”soft” box_color=”#e59c55″ title_color=”#3b3838″]The Philadelphia Free Writers Association and Writing on Point are partnering to offer two FREE workshops during the month of January in 2017. They will be on two consecutive Saturdays at the end of the month, the 21st and the 28th. Sign up for my mailing list…

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