I am not a poet. Yes, I have written poetry, and some of it might even be palatable, but overall, it would receive no finger snaps upon hearing them. What I do have, however, is poetic license within my fiction and non-fiction writing. Just like fiction, there are elements within poetry that when developed well can heighten the caliber of the work. Some of those elements include voice , imagery , sound , rhythm , and structure ; I'm sure you already see how these elements find their way into fiction, too. We can all agree that fiction writers care about the voices of their characters , especially the voice(s) of the main character(s) that readers follow throughout a novel. What these characters say (and don't say) and how they say it informs readers and helps them to make the characters real in their minds. In developing their characters and the worlds in which they live, fiction writers also care about the use of imagery . This, of course, does not mean to write flowery pr...

I’ve seen a lot of questions about using prologue and epilogue lately in forums. I’ve heard many an agent or panelist at a conference say: cut them, period! There is some truth to that. However, I’ve seen both done well. This rule is often broken to effect, particularly in Literary, Fantasy, and Thriller and Suspense genres. The prologue gives background information to the story that would give the reader insight that helps the story move along that is not found within the story itself. An author might add a prologue to help the story flow more smoothly by getting in information that would be clumsily delivered otherwise. The epilogue is the opposite. It helps tie up loose ends or possibly hint about a sequel or continuation of the series. An author could add an epilogue to entice the reader into buying the next book in a series or provide resolution by telling us how the characters end up further down the timeline. There are multiple ways to use prologue and epilogue...

Several television shows I enjoy reached a point where they decided to split up their cast and follow them separately. It doesn’t always work well. In the cop show Castle , they used the detour then put the cast back together. In the musical high school Glee , they are still trying to hang onto the old cast and follow a new cast and the show suffers for it. The same is true of a book that follows two separate plot threads. A parallel plot generally tells two stories of equal importance, moving from one to the other and back again as opposed to a subplot. It is hard to get caught up in one plot when the writer keeps the verbal camera moving between two separate story lines, especially if they don’t connect. The potential for plot holes is enormous. If you choose a parallel plot, ask yourself these questions: 1. Who do you want the reader to care about? Splitting the focus between two protagonists weakens the reader’s attachment to them. Every time you move the verbal camera...

We have developed forty conflict ideas and layered the first half of the story. Let’s finish the process. We left off at turning point 2. Now the hero must come up with the correct solution to the problem, the one he resisted at first: blow the meteor up. Internal Conflict 6 : Dick finds Sally packing her bags.      Dick says, "Don’t leave. I love you. I’ve always loved you."       She replies, "Then why are you ruining things?"             Should he tell? Is it better for her to know or not know that their days are numbered? Antagonist 7 : Dick confronts Ted.       "You had something to do with this."      "You’ll never prove it and in a few days it won’t matter anyway." External 7 : They are back to the drawing board - all seems lost. They enter countdown mode.  Internal Conflict 7 : Sally tells Dick that she received a call from Ted and that h...

This post was first published here on September 12, 2008. ~~~~~~~ 1. Mark repetitive words and phrases for rewrites or substitutions. As is a particularly overused phrase beginning. 2. Mark all lazy verbs such as were, was, had, and substitute active verbs or restructure sentence. In most cases take out just, now, very, only. There is no now in the past tense except within the dialogue or thoughts of the character. An editor once told me that tiny is the most overused word in manuscripts. 3. Once those basic mistakes are corrected, read aloud and listen for: A. Hard to read passages that make you stumble. Fix them. B. If you stop to breathe in the middle of a sentence, it’s probably too long. C. Unpleasant cadence, too many sentences with the same rhythm, too many long or too many short sentences within a scene. As a general rule, short sentences are used for fast paced action, longer are to calm down a scene. D. Sibilance (repetition of S or SH sounds) or iteration (r...