Outlining Your Story
Every novelist and storyteller differs in the way they outline (or in the way they don’t). There are both advantages and disadvantages to every way of outlining, and through putting a few different techniques into practice and analyzing your writing habits, you can find where you fall on the spectrum. For those who don’t outline, [...]
Functions of a Prologue, Part 3
The third use of a prologue is to sweep a reader into the action and ignite his/her imagination. Some crucial aspect is revealed or hinted at, in the very beginning; a place that holds a lot of the weight of the story. For example, a particularly violent murder in your prologue can set the stage [...]
Random Writing Exercise #5
Write a few paragraphs of a story about an occupation and the characters involved. It doesn’t matter which job you choose, but this works best if it’s one you are relatively familiar with. You need to make the reader understand why there’s a need for this job, how it works, and welding those intricacies into [...]
Functions of a Prologue, Part 2
A second purpose to a well-crafted prologue is for passing on information from an alternate viewpoint. In most cases, a prologue is written from the same perspective as the rest of the novel, but sometimes it increases the reading experience and relays more to the reader when another character’s view is shown that is not [...]
Functions of a Prologue, Part 1
One of the benefits of using a prologue in writing fantasy is to introduce your cast of characters. Especially if you have a large cast, more than one protagonist that equally tells the story, or if the plot is particularly complex. In a separate section from the body of your novel, you have the luxury [...]
World Building
I found this really great article that I’d like to share about creating your fantastical setting. I use these techniques myself and they are a great addition to your writer’s toolkit: —– Writing Fantasy – A Creative Approach to World Building By Will Kalif Before you can get your fantasy world to come alive in [...]
Random Writing Exercise #4
Have you ever read a novel with a decent page count where so much happens and every single word matters? One such novel that comes to my mind with incredible pacing is Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. I always wondered what magic potion he boiled the manuscript in before sending it out for publication. Here’s [...]
