Character failure is a big part of making the middle of a story work. We talk about why, and offer tips about how to make this work well for you.
Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
Lots of people struggle with the middles of their books. One way to look at the middle is that it’s the point where you’re no longer working on that new project that has you excited, but haven’t yet gotten to the cool ending that has you excited. We talk about…
We talk about how we define and structure scenes in our writing, and we make reference to Scene/Sequel format, the MICE quotient, and pacing.
Spoilers ahead! We dig into Of Noble Family, by Mary Robinette Kowal, focusing on language, culture, and the extensive research Mary did.
We answer questions about consistency, alternate histories, and the Great Spoke Plague of ’77
You’ve done piles of world building. How do you convey this world to reader without infodumping? We talk about the different skill levels involved, and then the techniques that you’ll be using as you get better and better at what is probably the most critical skill unique to genre fiction…
This one’s for all you folks who like to do some world building on-the-fly.
Let’s get that first page written in a way that will bring the reader to all the rest of the pages.
How do you know which bits of your story have to come first?
Any discussion of story structure must necessarily take a look at that big, long bit between the beginning and the end, that piece where almost everything actually happens. In this episode we talk about the middles of stories, and how formulaic structures will help you get them to do all of…