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You don't have to PLOT, you just need to realize, as you discover the story, that you have somebody plotting against them. Then, as we write, this is something we keep in mind (and perhaps notes). ...
angrily Seriously. When you are upset, write like an upset person. If you don't have a story where the piece fits in, shelve it for further use. Emotions are incredibly powerful in writing, and th...
Depending on the length of the thing you're writing, there are plenty of tasks that are not composing sentences. Perhaps you need to map out exactly how your characters are getting into and out of ...
Speaking as someone who has struggled with the same thing.. *If you are someone who can effectively channel upset feelings into your writing and you have something on the slate that would benefit ...
That's understandable. There's always that tempting desire to write things as 'efficiently' as possible, where the time spent planning a particular section turns immediately into results when writi...
It's never bad to go with the flow. In fact, there's a word for people who write like that. Pantsers. Those who write by flying by the seat of their pants. Writing an outline makes you more of ...
Several comments, in no particular order: 1) Sometimes the problem with pacing is in the transitions from scene to scene and not in the actual pace of the action. A few extra words at each transi...
From the way you're telling it, I'd point my fingers against the time-skips. Apart from the necessary time-skip when the MC is unconscious (and you could fill it up with descriptions, dreams or may...
My impression is that you've got so much going on in so few words, that you never really allow the reader to settle down and experience a scene, understand what's going on, go through your characte...
Every writer strives to make readers to feel the universe depicted in the story or writing. MC going to her boss(action) - confront(emotion)- collapses(incident)- taken to the hospital(action) -b...
My first inclination would be to write it the same way it's written in school materials. If the course catalog or class schedule says "Algebra 2", that's what I'd write. I'd do something different...
It can work. It sounds like you want to avoid the ‘meanwhile back at the ranch’ problem. We are all different, but I would this handle by staying with the captive as long as possible, but while s...
When one is a plotter of stories, every step of the intrigue is laid out before one starts writing. Well…, no. I sometimes think discovery writers imagine that plotters are passionless stone ...
I construe the court you refer to as a royal court with nobles of various ranks creating a veritable swirl of intrigue. Politics in a court setting is nothing less than lethal, the stakes are high ...
Wide Sargasso Sea comes to mind. It cannot exactly be considered a fanfic, given that it was a direct result of the writer's disagreement with Bronte's unflattering portrayal of a certain Creole c...
A term that describes itself, such as polysyllabic, is autological (see here for an amusing consequence of this concept).
I second the idea to use videos astronauts have made. Some are made for school children to teach about the concepts (worthwhile for adults too) and others are on different topics/for different aud...
Consider making the entire story into a flashback, told by the more refined and open minded narrator whom the "hero" will someday become. In the opening pages of the story, have this refined narra...
What positive character traits does your MC have? Surely he isn't all bad, a one-dimensional caricature of schmuckiness? Consider: in The Three Musketeers, d'Artagnan beats his servant (and Athos ...
Why tone him down at all? Some jerks are just jerks. I have a friend who thinks he is enlightened and self aware, but is sexist and racist. Changing POV need not mean giving him a friend, it coul...
As it happens, I'm also writing a middle-grade novel with an unlikeable character. He's not the main character but he's one of the secondary ones. He has a full arc where he changes and so far tw...
There may be action, but perhaps what you are missing is conflict. (Conflict is the MC personally having to make choices and solve problems, not just reacting to or living through "action".) Your c...
How about putting a scene from a later chapter at the beginning and then doing a flashback to tell the story of how it began? I've read/viewed multiple franchises who do that (with varying degrees ...
In the Babysitter's Club series by Ann M Martin, there is a special collection of books. This special collection of books may have all the characters in the babysitter's club go on trip to somewher...
Can you give it a frame story that gives a coherent overarching narrative that these all stories fit into organically? For instance, the POV characters all meet up in a temporary refuge after the ...
