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: For NaNoWriMo, just write! But if you must have a plan, have characters embroiled in a situation that interests you. #WritingCommunity is all a-twitter with questions and comments about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), so here are my thoughts on how to prepare for a new writing project. 1. Top priority is having a… Continue reading Preparing for NaNoWriMo
TLDR: Unraveling high-level problems in a novel is a mess. I do not understand it, but will share my thoughts on the process nonetheless. Last Monday my critique group had a special meeting in which we discussed high-level writing concerns like plot and structure rather than our usual nose-in-the-dirt critique of individual scenes. I came… Continue reading Gordian Plot
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