There is a certain magic in a well written ending. It must be both satisfying and surprising, unexpected and also perfectly fitting.
But where do you stop? Which sentences are the last sentences?
Latest Blog Posts / Page 2
If you’re new to Bookfox, this post is a good place to start. It talks about the big picture decisions every writer needs to make, rather than the tactical decisions I talk about in most other posts.
Basically, you need a giant, overarching plan for your writing life.
Every writer needs to learn dialogue from the great writers preceding them.
This post isn’t about how to punctuate dialogue, or the basics of how to write dialogue, but more advanced techniques, as shown by established authors.
Literary devices aren’t something you learn in English class and then forget about for the rest of your life.
They’re a beating, thumping heart of the fiction writer’s toolbox.
You can have relatable, complex characters and a compelling plot, but if your dialogue feels forced or clunky, your readers won’t make it far enough to care.
The truth is: nothing ruins a manuscript faster than bad dialogue.
Writing a novel can feel like staring into the void. When you’re sitting in front of a blank page, anything could happen, and that feeling is both freeing… and terrifying. This is where a good story structure comes in.
The query letter has one job–to get the agent (or the publisher, if you’re going that route) to read the pages you sent.
This means it doesn’t necessarily have to be brilliant, it just has to work. How to write a query letter that works?
There are eight parts of a query letter:
You build a character by separating them from the mass of humanity. Making them an individual, rather than a face in the crowd, is the main challenge of writers.
A mannerism is one of the best ways to make a character memorable. Just a single unusual or curious affectation can make them stick in the reader’s mind.
How well do you know your characters?
You’ve probably asked yourself some form of this question before. Most successful writers spend time delving into the characters who populate their pages.
Countless resources exist (such as Bookfox’s “4 Character Questionnaire Tests—Can You Pass Them?”) to help you create characters rich in backstory, motivation, and personality—just like real people.
What you’re about to read is unlike anything else on Writer’s Block.
The vast majority of other articles are written by freelancers who pick a few ideas off the top of their heads and slap them into a blog post. Most of them are recycling the same old familiar ideas – take a walk, take a vacation, read a book. Even worse, they’re trying to solve a fundamental problem by surface-level fixes.
It’s stupid and their ideas don’t work.