Prologues are often traps for beginner writers. They think that they can dump a lot of information at the reader, but it’s okay because it’s a prologue.
Unfortunately that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Thankfully there are good examples of prologues out there. One example is at the beginning of Leviathan Wakes by James Corey.
For the vast majority of stories, the main character doesn’t die at the end.
So then why do we fear for the character’s death anyway? And how can we make sure we do it to readers of our own stories?
Let’s find out!
The good news: you have the magical power to bring any painting you create to life.
The bad news: you neglected to paint your cat’s skeleton and respiratory system.
Over the weekend I watched the movie Coco, one of Pixar’s most recent films.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it got me thinking, “Man, Pixar is really good at telling stories!” I wonder if they’ve ever talked about how they go about writing them?
All it took was a little Googling to find “Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling.”
Creating a compelling character that embodies traits you like is easy. You can make them the underdrog, struggling against oppression, and overcoming conflict to eventually emerge victorious.
But what about the villains? The antagonists that you hate? How can you make sure that they don’t come across as a cardboard-cutout-plot-point who exists for no other reason than to get in the way of your protagonist?
The answer is simple: make them human.
A few weeks ago National Geographic announced a writing contest on WattPad. Writers were invited to create short stories based on images of the harmful effects of pollution on sea life.
We thought it might be fun to enter. But of course, we’d have to leave the deciding of the story to Twitch chat!
One of the hardest things for beginner writers to overcome is making sure that you’re SHOWing your readers a story, not just TELLing them one.
For horror, this is doubly important. No one wants to be told, “You’re scared now.” We want to see things happening on the page that make us wet our pants.
For some authors, worldbuilding can be overwhelming. How can you possibly come up with all the cultures, economies, and people that populate your story?
For others, worldbuilding can be a sand trap. How can I possibly just tell the story of just one person when I have these thousands of characters in my world?
Thankfully there’s an easy way to organize worldbuilding info and make it so that you don’t go too overboard.
GeoGuessr is a website where you are thrown into a random spot in the world on Google Maps streetview, and you have to try and guess where you are.
It’s fun to play just by itself, to see how close you can get, but it’s even more fun when you put a spin on it: writing a description of each random area you’re given.
They say it’s best to embrace your past, learn from it, and move on to live your best possible life.
So what better way to embrace your cringe-worthy past than by having a bunch of strangers write haiku poems about embarrassing college photos?
