Chris Sunami‭

It's perfectly fine to leave details up to the reader's imagination. But those comparisons are neither doing work for you nor for the reader. They have the look and feel of descriptions, but they ...

posted 5y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Writing can be a very difficult, frustrating, stressful and effortful process. It can also be very isolating to the writer. Given that writing is a form of communication, what is the point of writi...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  edited 4y ago by ArtOfCode‭

You have made a common mistake about world-building: believing that it all has to go on the page. World-building is for you, the author, to help you craft a story in a setting that feels real and ...

posted 7y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

It's worth noting that "Choose Your Own Adventure" is a specific brand of children's novelty "gamebooks," and that nearly all books written in this format are released under that brand. It's not -...

posted 7y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

If you are not primarily an "exploration writer" (or even if you are), there is a lot of advance work that can make your first draft better. This includes worldbuilding --coming up with rich and e...

posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

As a long-time blogger, I can say from experience: It's much harder to get any traction with an audience if you don't have a specific topic or theme. But it depends on what your goals for the blog...

posted 5y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

The initial problem was that writers (mostly, we assume, male) were writing female characters that were thinly imagined, stereotypical, and largely there only to reflect glory at the male protagoni...

posted 5y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

As I mentioned in my other recent question, my novel in progress has three main locations. I feel those three settings are strong, fully imagined places, with interesting storylines. However, the...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mark Baker‭

I'm largely not a discovery writer myself, but many --perhaps most --of my favorite authors are discovery writers. It seems like discovery writers almost universally struggle with endings --for obv...

posted 5y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

In order for your last ending to feel worthwhile, it needs to complete some important part of the protagonist's story arc left unfinished at the big battle. The Wizard of Oz has an anticlimatic se...

posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

I've read books written the way yours is currently set up, and I agree with your beta readers --some foreshadowing would help. However, I think you could afford to be fairly subtle about it. Th...

posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Self-publishing is viable for all and only the people who are willing and able to personally sell every copy of their own book (or eBook). It's great for public speakers, relentless self-promoters...

posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Perhaps this character "wants" to be someone quite different than you are trying to make her be. It sounds like she's making a mystery of herself. Perhaps this means she isn't who she claims to b...

posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Worldbuilding gives you the setting in which to tell a story. It is not the story itself. As a writer you need to wear many different hats. Architect is one hat, and editor is another, but the o...

posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

There are better and worse ways to do this. It can be difficult and needlessly confusing to have multiple first-person narrators --difficult to give them authentically different voices, and confus...

posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭