by
Chris Winkle
Some stories have succeeded despite their purple prose or clichéd descriptions. But if your narration is hard to read, you’ll have trouble just finding beta readers, much less agents, publishers, or happy customers. However, we all start somewhere, and naturally, some of us are more … read more »Podcast
by
Oren Ashkenazi, Wes Matlock and Chris Winkle
You may have heard us say “nothing good happens in an interlude,” but why are we so fond of saying that? What does an interlude actually do to a story, and how does that relate to flashbacks? There are times when flashbacks are appropriate, but … read more »Writing
by
Chris Winkle
When you’re writing an exciting fight scene, the last thing you want is prose that makes it feel like a slog. Great action prose is tightly worded, uses active language, and makes events feel vivid and immediate. I’ve previously listed some principles that can help … read more »Podcast
by
Oren Ashkenazi, Chris Winkle and Wes Matlock
Due to the linear nature of spacetime, stories have to start somewhere. The first line is, by definition, a reader’s first encounter with your story, but is it really as important as all that? Yes and no. This week, we’re talking about opening lines. We … read more »Writing
by
Chris Winkle
Opening a story in another world is tough. To understand what’s happening, readers may have to learn the names of people, species, places, and special devices. If you throw these names at readers too fast, they’ll be overwhelmed. But if you wait too long, they … read more »Podcast
by
Oren Ashkenazi, Chris Winkle and Wes Matlock
The term “prescriptivism” gets thrown around a lot, often to describe some pretty bad behavior, but what does it really mean? That’s what we’re investigating this week, because we don’t want to be prescriptivist about it. We discuss how language changes depending on context, what … read more »Podcast
by
Chris Winkle, Wes Matlock and Ariel Anderson
Most writers will seek out editing at some point in their careers, but what kind of editing should you get? Wait, there are different types of editing? Oh noooooooo – sorry, the writer in us got a little excited. This week, we are joined once … read more »Podcast
by
Ariel Anderson, Wes Matlock and Chris Winkle
Behold, an introduction, a beginning if you will, that is the place where the paragraph starts and I shall, heretofore, lay out the topic. The topic is clutter, if you couldn’t guess. This week, we discuss the nature of clutter: what it is, how it … read more »Podcast
by
Chris Winkle, Wes Matlock and Ariel Anderson
We use words every day, but we’re not always aware of what they mean. A phrase that sounds perfectly harmless to one person can be deeply unsettling to another. Changing a few words can completely alter the meaning of a paragraph. This is the reality … read more »Writing
by
Chris Winkle
We don’t write endless text without pause. At every level, from an entire book to each individual sentence, we break our prose into chunks. Some places in a story require a break, and in other places, breaking is optional. By placing these subjective breaks, we … read more »
Some stories have succeeded despite their purple prose or clichéd descriptions. But if your narration is hard to read, you’ll have trouble just finding beta readers, much less agents, publishers, or happy customers. However, we all start somewhere, and naturally, some of us are more … read more » 
You may have heard us say “nothing good happens in an interlude,” but why are we so fond of saying that? What does an interlude actually do to a story, and how does that relate to flashbacks? There are times when flashbacks are appropriate, but … read more » 
When you’re writing an exciting fight scene, the last thing you want is prose that makes it feel like a slog. Great action prose is tightly worded, uses active language, and makes events feel vivid and immediate. I’ve previously listed some principles that can help … read more » 
Opening a story in another world is tough. To understand what’s happening, readers may have to learn the names of people, species, places, and special devices. If you throw these names at readers too fast, they’ll be overwhelmed. But if you wait too long, they … read more » 
We don’t write endless text without pause. At every level, from an entire book to each individual sentence, we break our prose into chunks. Some places in a story require a break, and in other places, breaking is optional. By placing these subjective breaks, we … read more » 
