Expansion Pack: Stock Characters

Hi gang. Craig with you again. Earlier this year, I wrote a series here about The Hero’s Journey. This is a link to PART ONE. Then I went on to write several Expansion Packs. Those are easy enough to find by using the search function at the very bottom of our page. I’m not giving …

The Unrepentant Character

Hello, SeERs! You're with Mae today for a discussion on the unrepentant character. The difficult one. The problem child. The-how-the-heck-did-he/she-turn-out-that-way individual. We’ve all encountered them. It’s that individual you’ve already pre-determined is going to act a certain way, but who ends up doing the opposite. I like creating flawed characters, and that blurs the line. My heroes aren’t …

How Do You Write What You Can’t Know?

Hello SErs. Harmony here. Today, I have a question for you >>> How do you write what you can't know? Or, more to the point, how do you write it convincingly? My current WIP is set aboard an interstellar spaceship hurtling through outer space. In this kind of situation, I cannot possibly stick to the …

Taking a Sunday Drive

Hi, SE friends! Mae, here. Well, sort of.  🙂 As you read this, I am on a week-long vacation in the Pine Tree State of Maine. My wonderful SE colleagues have agreed to cover for me by answering comments, but I  want this to be a leisurely post . . . like a Sunday drive. …

A Different Take on Manuscript Analysis

Ciao, amici! When my turn rolls around to post at Story Empire, I almost always tell you how I do something or how the industry does it: dialogue, media kits, story bibles, basic plots... I usually revert back to professor-mode and "instruct" you on the terminology and my and/or the writing community's methodologies. Today, I'm going …