Category Archives: Writing tools

From Elizabeth George’s Write Away: “You can begin the story just before the beginning; you can begin it right at the beginning; or you can begin it after the beginning” (65). What are some other ways to start? How is it … Continue reading →

Let’s look at a few pages from Stanley Fish’s How to Write a Sentence.

From The 3AM Epiphany by Brian Kiteley, this exercise is called “Outrunning the Critic.” I’ve summarized it here: Write one hundred short sentences about a character in a piece of your fiction. Don’t lift your fingers from your keyboard for all one hundred … Continue reading →

From Brian Kiteley’s excellent book The 3A.M. Epiphany, you’ll find this exercise useful.

Based on what you know so far, address these questions: How do your characters act in the face of opposition/desires that contrast with their own? Do they plan, try to persuade, seek to escape, take physical action, for example? Describe … Continue reading →

I found this exercise useful when trying to create characters. From Alice LaPlante’s Method and Madness, here is the PDF.

Look at this view of Cinderella, from Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction. Consider also these contrasting views of conflict and connection when plotting/characterizing, which are also from Burroway’s book.

“So it’s always critical to keep in mind that there are no rules in fiction, only conventions that have been built up over the years based on the way that writers have crafted their stories. (A convention is ‘an established … Continue reading →