Category: structure
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Plans Sometimes Go Awry
Even the best laid out plans don’t always go the way you want them. I have always strived to learn the best way to approach a task so that I can do it better and faster the next time around. As good-intentioned as that may seem, it can also be a tremendous waste of time.…
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Video Games And Planning A Novel
For those of you who now me, probably know that I am a huge gamer. I have played video games of all types, but my favorite ones are the first person shooters or the hack and slashers. I like the first person part of it because it gets me into the game. Now, I’m not…
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The Snowflake Method and Everything Else
(Note: this was published earlier but put on as a page instead of a post) Now, I am not the author of the Snowflake method, that honor goes to Dr. Randy Ingermanson (The Snowflake Method). His brilliant strategy gave me a jump-off point for everything I do that involves creative writing. I won’t start a…
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From Idea To Outline
There are a few things we need to do before we can put everything down in an outline, but these are at least the first few steps. For me, outlining is a big part of the writing process. It probably takes me longer to write the outline than it does to actually write the story.…
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Selecting An Audience
Hello, and welcome back to my series on How To Write A Novel. In this series, I am attempting to explain exactly what step I go through to get a novel from idea to print. In this segment, I will explain a little bit about the importance of selecting an audience and how it affects…
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Narrowing Your Topic
It appears that I might have skipped a topic in the original list I published not too long ago. Or did I? I actually wanted to add this after introducing the logline so that it could be seen that it isn’t all that easy. If it was, then congratulations, you have a narrow enough topic…
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Fleshing Out Your Ideas
Your ideas are your babies. They may not be perfect (except in your mind) and may not actually go anywhere in their lifespan, but they are yours. What you do with them is up to you. I am here to tell you how I get mine from dream to paper and beyond. For those of…
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The Power of Organization
If you were to listen to my wife, she would have you believe that I am the most unorganized person in the world. Actually, it may not be far from the truth…in other things. In my writing, however, I want to have everything ready so that when I write, I can write. I think I…
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How To Construct A Scene
In a previous post, I showed the structure of a scene. At the time, I thought it was adequate and, up to that point, it was what worked for me. Recently, however, I have come up with another way of thinking about my scenes and how to construct them. After wrestling with ideas and even…
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Never Give Up!
I have been busy doing everything yet nothing at all. I’ve been working on my WIP for several months now and have even finished the first draft of it, that is until I went to revise it. You know what happened? I found that my structure was a bit–well, to be honest, more than a…
T. Lee Messick 