FROM THE VAULTS: WEEK 3, ACT 3

by | Aug 28, 2018 | Podcast

For obvious reasons, I won’t be referencing The Hand of Adonai and the Book of Things to Come for this post. The final installment of our look at the three act structure will be a bit shorter. Why? Because Act III is generally the shortest. If you recall, Act I...

GROSS ANATOMY OF A NOVEL: DIALOG

by | Aug 22, 2018 | Podcast

Firsts in Fiction Gross Anatomy of a Novel: Dialog What is dialog? “Dialogue is not a break in the action. It’s an intensification of the action. Here’s something else dialogue is not: It’s not the way we speak. Dialogue must appear realistic without being realistic....

FROM THE VAULTS: WEEK 2, ACT 2

by | Aug 14, 2018 | Podcast

Last week, I began a three-week series on the three act structure. Most commonly used for screenplays, novelists have long borrowed the basic structure to help outline novels. Bottom line, the three-act structure is a proven story-telling technique. This week, we’ll...

GROSS ANATOMY OF A NOVEL: PLOT AND STRUCTURE

by | Aug 8, 2018 | Podcast

Firsts in Fiction Gross Anatomy of a Novel: Plot, Pacing, Structure First, what do we mean when we talk about plot? Plot refers to the course of events in a novel. Typically, this also refers to the order in which they occur. A lot of times this is what we describe on...

ASK THE AUTHORS

by | Jul 25, 2018 | Podcast

Firsts in Fiction Ask the Authors How do you prefer to handle typesetting words in made up languages? Italics? What if you are including thoughts in dialogue? Here is an example: Kata’s brow furrowed, “Snack?” Zeta looked around warily before she whispered, “Snack –...

GROSS ANATOMY OF A NOVEL: VOICE

by | Jul 10, 2018 | Podcast

Firsts in Fiction Gross Anatomy of a Novel: Voice Continuing our look at Gross Anatomy of a Novel, this week we discuss Voice. First, let’s define “Voice.” Voice is one of the trickiest aspects of writing fiction. One thing the best writers have in common is a unique...