A beginning writer recently asked for advice on how to write a short story. My answer to her query was far too long for her post but I...

Ever stared at a black piece of paper while any semblance of an idea bled away? I think we all have.  Writer's block is insidio...

This is the third post in this series. In the first post I went over the sort of things Dent said should be clarified before pen touche...

I'm going to do something different today. Instead of continuing with my series on Lester Dent's Master Short Story Formula , I&...

This material is drawn from Chapter Four of Dwight Swain's book Techniques of the Selling Writer . Dwight Swain writes: &qu...

This post continues my series on story structure. Here are links to the earlier posts: Dan Wells' Seven Point Story Structure: ...

Today I'm going to talk about focal characters . I'm doing this because I want to examine how a focal character can be used to ...

One of my favorite books on writing is Dwight V. Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer because there he discusses, in depth, how ...

This post continues the series on Dan Well's 7-Point Story Structure ( Introduction , The End & The Beginning ). You see a ...

This post continues my series on Lester Dent's Master Fiction Formula . The First 1,500 Words 1a. Introduce your characters...