Plants and Payoffs

Hi Gang. Craig with you once again. Since today isn’t a holiday, I feel no compulsion to make some kind of arbitrary holiday tie in. That can be almost scary. Last night (Writing this days ahead) I spotted a great example of plants and payoffs. This is a frequent topic of writing blogs, but it …

Expansion Pack: The Crucible

Hi gang, Craig with you again. Most of my posts seem to be about characters, so why should today be any different? Today, I’m going to share a little tip to help your main character get that all-important character arc. Every person out there has an idea of who they are. There are things they …

Turmoil

Hi gang, Craig here today. One thing good fiction requires is a bit of turmoil. Your main character has to have something unsettling going on in his or her life. I write speculative fiction, so it’s fairly easy to give an example or two. I could dive right into an alien invasion or zombie apocalypse …

Character Archetypes: The Shadow

They say all good things must come to an end, and here we are at #8 of the Character Archetypes. This series is (was, small tear here) a breakdown of the main Character Archetypes of basic story structure. Our character today is a fun one, but I find them difficult to write. He’s known as …

Character Archetypes: The Guardian

Hi gang, Craig with you today. This is post number seven in the character archetypes series. In the Hero’s Journey, there are some common characters that are likely to show up in all stories. This doesn’t mean each archetype shows up in every story, and aside from the hero, the rest are kind of optional. …