Archive for September, 2007
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
What is the theme of the piece you are writing?
I ask this not for you to say, "I want to talk about the struggle between individual forces that you can see with this character in this scene." But rather, to open a discussion about the common use of plot.
Plot, when ...
Posted in On Writing, Plot | No Comments »
Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
When I have a willing accomplice, and it really does require a willing accomplice, I like to play a little game I call, "What if???"
The basic premise to the game is you take a situation and you propose a "what if" to it. Take the fat dude on the street. ...
Posted in Lessons From the Frontline, On Writing, Writer's Block | No Comments »
Thursday, September 20th, 2007
Simply defined, the antagonist is the person directly oppposed to the protagonist. Because we've discussed the protagonist and we know that the term protagonist does not, necessarily, denote good guy or hero, the antagonist is not someone who is inherently evil or bad.
Rather, the antagonist is someone who is directly ...
Posted in Character Types, On Writing | No Comments »
Saturday, September 15th, 2007
A couple of weeks ago Jordan and I were having a discussion about what constitutes a hero. As a result of his constantly telling me someone was a "hero" I made him define what he meant. This is, according to basic philosophy, an Aristotelean trick designed to bring everyone on ...
Posted in Character Types, On Writing | No Comments »
Thursday, September 13th, 2007
There is some confusion in the world about appropriate description for a story. Granted, there are no "cut and dry" answers on how to do description; but there are ways to assist in visualizing what needs to be done to make the scenes you are trying to write pop off ...
Posted in Description, Lessons From the Frontline, On Writing | No Comments »