Posts by Kevin
Don't worry about it and use "and" when you need to. Some words in writing are effectively invisible. They perform such basic grammatical functions that it is very rare for readers to be grated by...
In the eternal battle between pantsers and planners, I'm a very hard planner. I don't feel comfortable writing the first page of a story until I know the overall structure and the main characters, ...
A story is about main characters trying to overcome a conflict. The ending is happy if the characters succeed. The ending is sad if the characters fail. The ending is mixed if the characters overco...
Frequently, you make it as painful and explicit as possible. One of the most compelling ideas I've heard about art in general, including writing, is that each piece of work has a gesture, or overa...
There is a formula! Mechanically, stakes are rather straightforward; The protagonist has a goal. The antagonist (or antagonistic force) is doing something that gets in the way of said goal. In th...
I think you'll be surprised by how little detail you need to include in your story to get the point across. If you're worried about how to include all of your ideas thoroughly enough to tell the st...
Honestly, you don't. Everything that happens in your story must move the plot forward to justify its inclusion. It should give your characters personality (and strongly so - everyone has a daily r...
Just to be clear - I'm not trying to change the amount of work, or the reduce time it takes, I'm merely asking for ways to avoid excessive editing (something I don't enjoy) by doing other things s...
You seem to be looking at picking a genre as signing up to follow a very tight straight-jacket on your writing. I don't believe that's what genre is at all. Rather, genre is a very loose set of rel...
I don't have a lot of respect for the three-act structure for exactly the reason you've run into: It doesn't get you any mileage out of the second act. In fact, I'm going to go further than that: T...
I wrote an answer to a similar question a while ago: https://writing.codidact.com/questions/34255#answer-34261 Like in that answer, to be honest, I think you're spending too much time thinking abo...
Good writing isn't good because of the specific words or style used. Good writing is good because it communicates an idea clearly, in a well-organized structure, and with a style that is pleasant t...
With that many characters, you're dealing with an ensemble cast. That means you're going to have to carefully structure your story so that each major protagonist is introduced to the story in a way...
This website shows the rubric used to grade SAT tests. It does not discuss contractions anywhere. So I believe that as long as you use a style that fits the criteria described by the rubric, whethe...
Some advice I got when outlining my current project is that, in addition to outlining the plot and the characters, I can outline the plot hooks that tie each major section of the story together. Th...
There are three things that make a Mary Sue. You want to avoid all three of them: The character has a backstory that is desperately tragic, but doesn't encounter serious problems in the story. (T...
There are two things that every fictional character needs to be likable: a clear motivation or goal and a distinct voice or personality that comes through their actions and dialogue. Real people a...
Instead of asking how much dialog should be in your story, I think you'll have more luck asking how to make your dialog more interesting. After all, there are some excellent stories out there that ...
The Room is about a man whose love life runs off the rails and ends in a brutal break-up. This is a topic that a lot of people are interested in. La La Land is about the same theme. Shrek seems lik...
A semicolon is a complex beast: You don't use it when you want an idea to stand on its own. You use a full stop for that. You don't use it to tie two ideas closely together because if you did, yo...
Excellent writing is one of the primary selling points of some games - but it is by no means necessary. It can even be counterproductive in some situations. There has been research into what aspec...
The specific details you choose don't matter as much as how you wield them. You want to start out with details that are incredibly subtle. These are less to clue your readers in and more to reward ...
One thing to keep in mind is that your setting bible is an internal document. Your players (or readers or viewers or audience) will never see it. As a result, the moment you spend a single second w...
I would say it's best not to write this as a series of shots. The reason is because whether to break that up into multiple shots is a decision for the director and cameramen to make, not for you. ...
A strong character has two elements: Its motivation, as revealed through its choices, and Its personality, as revealed through its dialogue and body language. So let's talk about how those appl...
