by Nanci | Nov 25, 2024 | Podcast
It’s officially gift giving season. Your family and friends might be asking, “What do you want for Christmas?” Or “What do you want for your birthday?” When it comes to gifts for writers, they’re fresh out of ideas. Maybe you have a...
by Nanci | Nov 18, 2024 | Character, Plot, Podcast
Cause and effect is one of the staples of a cohesive plot. Every cause leads to an effect. It’s often described as a chain reaction: one event leads to another and another. But when we think of cause and effect solely in what happens, we’re missing a big...
by Nanci | Nov 11, 2024 | Character, Podcast
How do you build character into the structure of your story? What’s the story beneath the plot? What character secrets are driving your story forward? You never want to rely on plot structures alone. There’s the story underneath that’s driving the...
by Nanci | Nov 4, 2024 | Craft, Podcast
Predictability may keep us feeling safe and certain in real life. But it’s fatal in story. You never want the reader to see what’s coming next. You want to keep readers guessing. A great story is unpredictable. Once the reader can predict how the plot will...
by Nanci | Oct 28, 2024 | Character, Podcast
How do you write beyond the stock, archetypical villain? How do you make him or her more intriguing and believable? How do you write a fascinating villain? How do you surprise us? In this episode, I’m sharing 3 ways to make your villain complex and...
by Nanci | Oct 22, 2024 | Podcast
If I were to ask you, what is your story’s point, what would you say? Could you sum up your central story idea in a few sentences? A big challenge many writers face is keeping their story focused on one single driving point,. Without a central unifying point,...
