The Building Blocks of Story: Sequels

Ciao, SEers. Last time, we discussed Dwight Swain’s concepts of scenes. (If you missed that post, you can find it here. You can also find the earlier introductory post on both scenes and sequels here.) Remember, a chapter’s scenes can be one of two things, a scene or a sequel. Today, we’re going to go …

The Building Blocks of Story: Scenes

Ciao, SEers. Last time, we discussed Dwight Swain’s concepts of scenes and sequels. (If you missed that post, you can find it here.) Remember, a chapter’s scenes can be one of two things, a scene or a sequel. Today, we’re going to go deeper into the concept of scenes. What are scenes? Scenes are the …

The Building Blocks of Story

Ciao, SEers. I’m currently wrapping up edits on a full five-book series. It’s hard to revise all day, every day—especially when it’s your own work instead of a client’s—so sometimes, creative breaks are necessary. They actually serve two purposes. They let your analytical brain take a rest, so you’re less likely to make editing mistakes …

Endings

Ciao, SEers. We're wrapping up the series on beginnings, middles, and endings with (shockingly 😉 ) endings. If you missed our earlier discussions, you can find them by clicking the links in the beginning of this paragraph. Novel endings are like novel beginnings in that you have a lot to accomplish in a short amount of …

Middles

Ciao, SEers. Last time I was here, I promised a discussion of beginnings, middles, and ends. We covered beginnings in the November 5 post. Today, it's time to look at middles. While you have to remember to start your story strong, it’s important to remember that a novel is a marathon, not a sprint. Beginnings …