How Many Drafts?
How many drafts does it take to get out of the edit toward a published book? Book One is still in the edit, and here’s why; it’s only on its’ third draft. …
How many drafts does it take to get out of the edit toward a published book? Book One is still in the edit, and here’s why; it’s only on its’ third draft. …
I appreciate what people mean when they say ‘it’s all in the edit.’ Of the three book series, Book One is in serious need of editing. …
If you’re stifled at the keyboard unable to find your free flow: get up and create.
It’s a common thing with authors and other creative types. You want to create but the creativity won’t flow. …
From his Free Writing Course online, we bring you Brandon Sanderson’s Three P’s of Plot. Fine advice for the budding author… …
When I accepted the fantasy novel challenge, I knew to make the effort worth while, it had to be a series. I plotted Book One and made a start.
Plotting Book Two I realised I was drawn to the secondary character, a young woman with a difficult back story and special abilities. She was far more interesting than the grumpy Western gunfighter (sword-slinger) of Book One. So I switched point of view. And stayed with her for the plotting of Book Three. The obvious was staring me in the face. …
What is scene structure in fiction? It’s exactly the same as the structure for the chapter and for the whole story. Scenes are the building blocks of story; you can treat each scene as a short story in itself. But it has to have a satisfying structure in order to keep the reader turning the page. …
Four books in progress and the main crutch is Derek Murphy’s twenty-four chapter structure holding them all together. Without structure, novels are just so many words. Structure is vital. But is has to be the right structure. …
Most movies, TV shows and plays break down into the classic three-act structure. There’s a debate about books, however; should you plot using three acts or four? …
Following Mary Robinette Kowal’s guest lecture for Sanderson’s 2020 course, we started looking at Word Budgets. Let’s go further with MICE, fractals and budgets. …
Part of the editing process is considering how character arcs rise and fall in the course of the novel. Movement, growth and change are key.
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