When plotting your book the scene you probably know immediately is the Inciting Incident. It's the event that kicks off all of the action in your book. The Inciting Incident is what pushes your character to make some choice or embark on some journey that is the main...
If you are familiar with most of the common plot structures for fiction, both for novelists and screenwriters, you have heard the term Ordinary World. Even if you aren't familiar with these plotting structures, the term kind of gives it away. The Ordinary World is the...
Considering writing romance novels? Romance is one of the top selling genres in fiction and has been for a very long time. Romance gets a bad rap and when you say you are writing romance, you may get a superior look or two. Shake it off. These people know nothing...
How to write a romance? Contrary to what some people seem to think, writing a romance is no easier than writing any other type of book. In fact, if writing romance and relationships doesn’t come naturally to you, it may be harder than writing any other type of book....
So you want to plot a book... Not every writer is a plotter; I realize that, but I'm also a strong believer that your writing will be more efficient if you have at least some idea where your story is going. So, if the idea of writing out a hundred scene cards or even...
Anyone a fan of The Maltese Falcon? How important is the Maltese Falcon in the story? Well, it’s ALL important and in the end, not important at all. The item itself turns out to have no real value to anyone—but what makes it important is it gets the characters and...
If you ask a writer what they hate about writing, writing a synopsis may very well be their answer. Why do writers hate writing a synopsis of their book? I mean they wrote the book. They know the book. Hopefully, they at least somewhat like the book. I think it's...
A while back Kathy Steffen and I taught a great group of writers from the Romance Writers of New Zealand what I consider to be the very first step in writing any book—nailing the Goal, Motivation, and Conflict of your main characters. (Also known as GMC: Goal...
A lot of writers hear that romance is the number one selling genre and with that in mind decide they want to write a romance novel. Let me start by saying I think that is a horrible reason to want to write a romance novel and one that is laden with possibilities for...
