• Subplots, ever heard of them? Essential to a good novel, here's how you can incorporate them with ease, and why you need to.

    How to Add Subplots to Your Novel and Why You Need Them

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    While your main plot is solely focused on your protagonist and his or her outcome, subplots serve as side stories to the main plot and tend to focus on secondary characters. Subplots should not overpower the main plot, but instead, strengthen the story and more develop the theme of your novel. The How While short stories or children’s books under 8,000 words rely on a basic, linear plot structure (one plotline), any story over that 8,000-word mark should have one or more subplots (depending on the story’s length) woven into it. Treat each subplot as a mini-story, meaning they need…

  • Pushing through the middle: reviving your fiction story.

    Pushing Through the Middle: Reviving Your Fiction Story

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    When writing fiction, oftentimes the middle is where most writers hit a wall and do one of two things: they quit or they keep going. The middle, however, is no place to give up. Instead, it’s time to hone in on what you can do to make the middle zone the best it can be. Every story is made up of three parts: a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning will always be the easiest part to write. Like your story, you are full of momentum and excitement and the beginning can thrive off those two motivations alone. The same…

  • Multiple Narrators, One Story, No Sweat!

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    You can find it in fiction, non-fiction, even in cookbooks: more than one person narrating different portions of the book to offer various perspectives, beliefs and even manners of speaking (or writing in this case). If an author were interested in utilizing multiple narrators in his/her story, there needs to be considerations made to display the differences between the narrators. You don’t want many people supposedly narrating the story, but it appear only one person is describing the events of the story. As you craft your narration, think about the ages of the narrators. One example I came across while…

  • How To Write Romantic Relationships (Without Getting Cheesy)

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    I love a good story with some romantic element. It has a way of sweeping me into the characters’ lives and drawing me deeply into their trials and triumphs. Of course there are books that focus on romance as their main genre, but a solid romantic relationship can add dimension to almost any story. The problem is pulling it off without overusing any looks of longing or overdramatic reconciliations (not every argument has to end with someone flying across the world with two dozen roses). Here are some tips on how to write romantic relationships that add depth to your…