Three Elements of Horror

Ciao, SEers. We've rounded the corner and are in the second half of the year. Even though we're in the heat of summer, for me, as soon as we hit July, I feel fall coming (my favorite season of the year) and that means it's time to start thinking about all things autumn. You're probably …

Developing Your Villain

Caricature by J.J., SVG file by Gustavb, Re-png'd by VirtualRash  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License Ciao, SEers! I've been talking to you about some of my favorite character types the last couple of times I was with you. We've already gone over sidekicks and red herrings (if you missed them). Today, I'm sure it's no surprise …

How to Write a Red Herring

Ciao, SEers! Sorry about the strange cartoon fish, but it's the best I could find. Last time, I talked to you about the sidekick. Today we're talking about red herrings, or the literary misdirect. I admit, all these years of writing them, and I never knew why the plot device was called what it was. …

How to Write a Sidekick

Ciao, SEers! Today I thought we'd talk about a character who isn't used often enough and is discussed even less. I'm referring to the sidekick. Sure, we all write in friends and family. No one writes a single-character story. But I mean a true sidekick. Not a buddy, like in Lethal Weapon or Tango and …

Fiction Dialogue 201

Ciao, SEers! My first post for Story Empire was called Fiction Dialogue 101, and it was actually our site's inaugural post... all the way back on August 31, 2016. I thought it was time for the next class, so welcome to Fiction Dialogue 201, where the concepts are slightly more advanced, but I promise you …