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 …

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 …

Expansion Pack: The Villain’s Journey + The Monster

Hi Gang, Craig with you again. Time for another Expansion Pack that ties in with The Hero’s Journey, also known as the Writing Monomyth. This time we’re dealing with our villains. Before you go all feral on me, there are some stories where the antagonist isn’t a human. Man vs Nature, Man vs Self, that …

Careful Who You Kill

Hello SErs. Harmony here. My current WIP is the first time I've written first draft without doing any editing. None at all. At first, I found it tough. But by now, having reached near the end, I've seen how useful it can be ... even a life saver. Early on, a character called Jenny popped …