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Is Your Plot Going Somewhere Readers Will Follow?
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Just because you have a plot, doesn’t mean you have a story. The first novel I ever wrote was all about the plot. This happened, and then that happened, and I explained...
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5 Common Problems With Beginnings
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyIf your beginning isn't working, no one will get to the ending. A novel’s beginning is under a lot of pressure. It has to introduce the protagonist and characters, setup...
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Do You Feel It? Writing With Emotional Layers
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyJust like your plot has layers, consider the emotional layers of your story. Emotions are like a complex soup, where every sip brings a new experience and you never know...
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Stuck on Your Plot? Change Your Story Question
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy A strong plot starts with a compelling question. A lot of writers I speak with struggle with plotting. They can come up with great ideas and wonderful characters, but...
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Do You Know Who Your Narrator Is?
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyIf you don't know who's telling your story, how do you know whose story you're trying to tell?Before I dive in today...A quick reminder that today is the last day to...
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Throw Rocks at Your Characters (It’s Good for Them!)
By Angela AckermanPart of the How They Do It SeriesJH: Sending a character into an emotional spiral is a great way to add conflict to scene or build more tension in a novel. Angela Ackerman joins us...
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Sharing the Spotlight: How Much Page Time Do Supporting Characters Need?
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyJust because they're a supporting character doesn't mean they have to do what the protagonist says. Everyone knows the protagonist is the star of the show, but supporting...
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5 Common Problems With Middles
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy The middle is where most of a novel happens, which is why they're often so difficult to write. For a long, long time in my early writing days, middles were the bane of my...
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6 “Fatal Flaws” That Will Kill a Novel
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyFatal flaws can sink a story, but don’t lose hope if you find one in your novel. First drafts are all about getting an idea from your head onto the page, but sometimes...
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Writing Your Novel Backward Might Be the Secret to Success
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy It’s hard to plot a novel if you don’t know what problem it’s trying to solve. Creating plots has always been easy for me, but endings are my nemesis. I usually have a...
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Using Story Archetypes to Find Your Plot
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyStory archetypes are useful tools to develop a novel or story. Although we hear about character archetypes a lot in writing, I’ve found story archetypes much more useful...
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Getting the Best Response From Your Characters
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyDon't confuse your readers by mixing up what happens when and why.When one of my nieces was little, she'd tell me stories about her day. They usually made no sense, and...
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How Your Character’s Internal Conflict Can Help You Plot
Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy If you've been struggling with a plot, or you're looking for ways to deepen an existing plot, try looking at how your protagonist's internal conflict is driving her external...
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5 Common Problems With Endings
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyYour ending is the whole point of your book. This is the last post in my mini-series on common problems in beginnings, middles, and endings. Today, we’ll take a look at...
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Why Conflict Is so Hard to Create in Romance
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyRomances don’t usually have a villain, but there is a strong conflict driving the plot. The romance genre is an odd mix of writing difficulties. On one hand, it’s easy to...
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Why You Should Write a Novel "Just for Fun"
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Not everything you write needs to be published—or even publishable. A few years after I published my third novel (Darkfall), I fell into a dark time with my writing. I...
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Broken, but Still Good: 3 Ways to Create Character Flaws
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Choose the right flaws and weaknesses to round out your characters. There's an old saying: "I'm not looking for the perfect man, just one with faults I like." No clue...
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An Easy Tip for Tightening Your Novel’s Plot
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy A loose plot can easily unravel, but tying up the threads strengthens the entire novel. One of my favorite things when writing is when I make an accidental connection...
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You Can Fight Mama Nature: What to do When Your Antagonist is Nature Herself
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Some antagonists can't be fought—they can only be survived.It's common to hear "antagonist" and think "villain," but the two are not synonymous. An antagonist is just who...
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4 Must-Ask Questions Before You Start Your Novel
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyA little thinking before you start writing can make a huge difference in how easy that story is to write.For some writers, a blank page is a scary thing to face. For...
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