Neal Holtschulte's Writing Blog
TLDR: Writers can keep readers engaged by looking for MICE: settings that need restored, questions that need answered, character desires that need resolved, and problems that need fixed. ...but first I digress. I read Ender's Game at a formative age and loved it. I read the sequels and felt bored and disappointed so I was… Continue reading MICE Quotient
TLDR: Accepting imperfection doesn't mean abandoning the goal of perfection. I've finished step 8 of the Snowflake Method. The ending was a big challenge. I rewrote the outline of the ending multiple times, trying on different mixtures of events and characters to see what produced the most drama. After that I looked at what I… Continue reading Snowflake Method 2
TLDR: Planning a novel isn't any easier than writing one, but it might save you time in the long run. I was once a curmudgeonly writer like you. Writing is fun, I said! Creating is fun! Planning? That takes all the fun and surprise out of it. And it wasn't like I hadn't tried the… Continue reading The Snowflake Method
TLDR: In this post I analyze the plot structure of Ready Player One in order to improve my own plotting. SPOILER WARNING Ready Player One has got great bones. It's got such great bones that it makes me want to x-ray them or even better, yank them out and hang my own organs, muscle, and… Continue reading Plot Structure of Ready Player One
Haste Writing 