Our fictional characters can make or break our fiction. The challenge for all of us is to paint characters in a three-dimensional way. What do I mean by three-dimensional characters? Writing Tip for Today: Here are tips for writing better 3-D characters: Like Real Life But Different We often hear it said about writing dialogue—it’s […]
Author Archives: Linda S. Clare
Writing Your Character’s Strengths and Weaknesses
In writing fiction, your character’s strengths and weaknesses determine the story’s trajectory, conflict and emotion. Writing Tip for Today: Here are some ways to identify and then utilize your character’s strengths and weaknesses: Your Character’s Story Place any character into the point-of-view role and you’ll likely have different versions of a story. Your main character’s […]
Getting Your Writing Unstuck
You’re chugging along with a story, novel or memoir, when Bam! Your writing is stuck. Writing Tip for Today: Here are a few tips for getting your writing unstuck: Review Your Character Whenever I feel stuck in writing, I look to my Main Character first. I evaluate my character’s goal to see if it’s worthy […]
Three Ways to Proof Your Writing
Presently, I’m working on a book proposal, and one of the biggest advantages I can give it is to carefully proofread the copy. Writing Tip for Today: We hear a lot of talk about hiring editors for our work. Here are three easy tips to self-proof your own writing: Let It Rest I have a […]
Writing through Chaos
Ah, August. Vacays, grandchildren, camps and conferences can all take a big bite out of your writing routine. How can you keep writing through the chaos? Writing Tip for Today: Here are some tips for keeping calm during chaotic times: Don’t Fight It I’ve been reading up on a topic I’m writing about and I […]
Writing Truer Characters
Whether you’re writing fiction or memoir, your characters must do the heavy lifting for your readers. Writing Tip for Today: What are some ways to make your characters “truer?” Light Up the World You invent characters or in the case of memoir, you reimagine them. Inside your head these characters are fully formed. The hard […]
When the Sky Falls (Again)
On a bright summer morning, I sip my coffee, and I’m glad to be alive. The day before, I enjoyed my son with the thrill of seeing him sober. He showed me an animated short film we both loved, we talked about our veggie garden. And he laughed, a real honest-to-goodness chortle that sounded like […]
Writing Better Scenes: Three Tips
From fiction writing to memoir to essay, scenes anchor our readers in time and space. Yet our scenes can be even more effective if they also do these three things. Writing Tip for Today: What are three ways to make scenes more effective? Create the World Your scene’s goal is always to create a world […]
Writing: Those Evil, Weasel Words
As I’ve said many times, I never edit myself as I write. I want to get those ideas down. But then, I need to fix it up. Those evil, weasel words must go. Writing Tip for Today: Here are some tips for editing out words that don’t pull their weight: Vague Swamp Weasel words can […]
Writing: Keep Your Tone Steady
While some writers long to develop a writing voice, far more of us struggle to keep our voice even on the page. Much of it comes down to tone. What do I mean? Writing Tip for Today: Let’s talk about ways to keep your writing tone even and steady throughout your work: Gems in the […]
