16 Reasons to read your work aloud

All images Pixabay Most writers have learned the importance of reading their words aloud. It’s advice I heeded early on and am happy to pass along. Writing works on myriad levels. On one level, it’s the mechanical delivery of a story, the typing of words according to rules. It’s fingers on keyboards, reams of paper, …

Story Development and Execution Part 6: Constructing Chapters

Ciao, SEers. Today is part six: chapter construction. I was surprised to find none of us has spent a great deal of time discussing the chapter as a discrete unit of a story. We gloss of things in a few posts, but never delve into chapter construction. (There is a post on scenes that might …

How to Use Prologues, Part 2, What A Prologue Is and Isn’t

Image courtesy of Tumisu via Pixabay Hi SErs! It's a day of Harmony here at Story Empire 🙂 Today, I'd like to talk about what a prologue is and is not. Here's a link to the previous post on Prologues Overview. Below is a screenshot of the dictionary definition of the word ... As you …

Story Development and Execution Part 5: Plot Development

Ciao, SEers. Today is part five: plot development. Here at Story Empire, we’ve covered different ways to plot a story (I covered Vonnegut, Booker, and Nutshell, and Craig has discussed three-act structure), so I’m not going to teach “plotting” today. Rather, I want to discuss how to develop a plot. Last time, we discussed dialogue …

How to Use Prologues, Part 1, Overview

Image courtesy of Tumisu via Pixabay Hi SErs! It's a day of Harmony here at Story Empire 🙂 Today, I'd like to introduce a series of posts on Prologues and their uses, as well as how to do them well and what pitfalls to avoid. Some people have strong feelings about the use of prologues, …