11 Tips for Redrafting Your Novel by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
11 Tips for Redrafting Your Novel
11 Tips for Redrafting Your Novel
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 7 “Editing” – Section 6 “Drafting”
“I write a ridiculous number of drafts. The characters change and grow through the drafting, and my understanding of them deepens. Creating characters in a novel is like shooting at clay pigeons and missing, and then missing more productively as the narrative continues.” -Robert Boswell
Now that we have made it through the delightful playground of thought that is English grammar and punctuation, we are going to look at the skill of drafting. (Please stop throwing popcorn at the screen, th
27 YouTube Channels to Help Improve Your Writing by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
27 YouTube Channels to Help Improve Your Writing
27 YouTube Channels to Help Improve Your Writing
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 11 “Resources” – Section 1 “Youtube Channels”
One of the things that inspired me to begin writing these writing tutorials was that, about a year and a half ago, I came to a frustrating point in my writing where I knew enough about the craft to no longer be a novice but not enough to make my novel publishable. In particular, I wanted to find a Youtube channel that I could listen to while I was cooking or working, so that my skills as a writer could increase. Since then I have found (through research, friends, and even you
14 Tips for Writing an Essay by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
14 Tips for Writing an Essay
14 Tips for Writing an Essay
NOT Anybody Can Write a Novel
Chapter Infinite “Life Skillz” – Section 1 “Essays”
So you've likely clicked on this in pure disbelief, wondering “what sort of witchery is this? Blake writes novel tutorials, not essays!” Well... mostly true. This is indeed not witchery, nor the start of a new series (we still need to finish our Novel after all); but an outline for a small public speaking event that I've got scheduled at MSU on the topic of how to write an essay. You see, when I was learning how to write, I was never taught how to write a good essay, that there was a corre
6 Tips for Creating Paragraphs in Your Novel by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Tips for Creating Paragraphs in Your Novel
6 Tips for Creating Paragraphs in Your Novel
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 7 “Editing” – Section 2 “The Paragraph”
“I will try to cram these paragraphs full of facts and give them a weight and shape no greater than that of a cloud of blue butterflies.”
-Brendan Gill
Once you have completed a first draft that is broken down by carefully constructed plot-points and chapter breaks, the next element you need to look at is the paragraph. Think of paragraphs as the glue by which you hold the sentences, which form your story, into cohesive and unified ideas. The difficulty, however, is that
8 Tips for Composing Each Chapter of Your Novel by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Composing Each Chapter of Your Novel
8 Tips for Composing Each Chapter of Your Novel
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 7 “Editing” – Section 1 “The Chapter”
“Many first-time novelists end up rewriting their first two or three chapters, trying to get them 'just right.' But the point of the first draft is not to get it right; it's to get it written - so that you'll have something to work with.”
-Matt Hughes
Recently, we've been working on all of the plot-points contained within a story and what function they serve to the overall plot. And if you've been following along with the “Write-A-Novel” exercises, and writte
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Epilogue by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Epilogue
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Epilogue
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 6 “Plot Points” – Section 12 “Epilogue”
“A true epilogue is removed from the story in time or space. That's the reason it is called an 'Epilogue'; the label serves to alert the reader that the story itself is over, but we are going to now see a distant result or consequence of that story.”
-Nancy Kress
The most basic element of a story are the efforts of a protagonist to reach a goal, to fight the antagonistic forces that prevents him/her from reaching that goal, and to either achieve it or fail. By the end of the
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Climax by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Climax
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Climax
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 6 “Plot Points” – Section 11 “Climax”
“In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.”
― Rose Tremain
With only two plot-points to go, you've very nearly made it to the end of the story. Following the Stand Up, the next plot-point is the Climax—often referred to as the final battle, the main confrontation, or the showdown of your story. This is the point at which your plot comes to a close and where your primary protagonist will either triumph o
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Stand Up by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Stand Up
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Stand Up
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 6 “Plot Points” – Section 10 “Stand Up”
“At the center of your being
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.”
-Laozi
At the Midpoint of the story, that point at which the hero faces the primary antagonistic force and fails, there is a shift in the pace. Your hero tries his or her hardest and yet everything they do results in failure, a constant downhill spiral that finally slows to a stop in the Second Turning Point, as your protagonist finally determines that they must do something t
4 Tips for Writing Your Second Turning Point by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
4 Tips for Writing Your Second Turning Point
4 Tips for Writing Your Story's Second Turning Point
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 6 “Plot Points” – Section 9 “Second Turning Point”
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
-Thomas A. Edison
In the last few tutorials, I've compared the Disaster to having been put into a literal pit, and the Second Pinch Point as the antagonistic force having begun to shovel dirt into the pit with the intention of burying your hero alive. For a second, your hero thrashed around in horror at what was happening, but now comes the mo
4 Tips for Writing Your Story's Second Pinch Point by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
4 Tips for Writing Your Story's Second Pinch Point
4 Tips for Writing Your Story's Second Pinch Point
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 6 “Plot Points” – Section 8 “Second Pinch Point”
“If you look at the great superheroes in any universe, you will always find that they have the very best super villains opposing them. It's because they are foils; they are people that the heroes play off of.”
-Jim Lee
The villain, the antagonist, adversity, and the struggle against them are the elements which define the hero, and often even the device by which the hero finds the strength to fight. Nowhere do we see this more clearly than in the Second Pinc