Hoi T. Pham's Blog
December 17, 2020
2 essences of a story: conflict and stakes
Conflict and stakes are the 2 essences of a story because it will make the reader care and engage in our stories, which, in turn, will keep them reading. Without these two elements, there isn’t much of a story, and without a story, there isn’t an audience. What is conflict in a story? Conflict are …
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December 11, 2020
My Journey To Writing The Best Story In The Universe
My Writing Journey The writing journey for many writers that I’ve read about seem to have a common thread. It usually begins with flashing back to how they were voracious readers, mesmerised by stories, always having a love of books and the written word. And for as long as they could remember, they’ve always known …
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December 9, 2020
No, but where are you really from?
Every now and then, I’d meet someone who is curious about my background and ask where I am from. I never know how to answer this because I’m never sure if they’re asking about my race / ethnicity or where I grew up. So, I cover all bases: I’m Chinese, who lived in Sydney, Australia …
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October 3, 2020
7 tips to improve your writing
Writing a novel can be overwhelming. When I first started, there was so much to learn and at times, it felt overwhelming. Here are the lessons I learnt when I was writing my debut novel, Broken. 1. Start writing today Most of us have tendencies to procrastinate before jumping into a big endeavour such as …
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7 tips to create engaging character arcs
Characters are one of the most important elements to keep readers reading. It doesn’t matter if your story is action packed with explosives going off every five minutes, readers will not connect if your story have characters who are dull or does not transform or effect transformation in others. Therefore, developing your character arcs is …
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Importance of point of view in writing
So, you’ve got a killer story on your hands and want to develop your characters as much as possible. Before you go overboard, one of the key things to think about is what point of view (POV) you will write it in. There is no correct POV to use in your story. You should simply …
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Show v. tell (aka describe v. explain)
This is probably the most common writing advice. If you haven’t heard about it, you will now – it’s everywhere. But what is it? What is it? Showing describes details, actions, or images so reader can recreate and imagine the story and characters in their mind. I prefer to think of this as describing, for …
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What is ‘voice’ and can you develop it?
It seems all editors and literary agents search for “voice” in a story. Without it, we’re told, we’re doomed to failure. Probably the most annoying thing is when people say you can’t learn ‘voice’ – you either have it or you don’t. I don’t agree with this. I don’t think people pop out of the …
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How much should you care about psychic distance?
So, you’ve written your book and sent it off to critique partners, beta readers, or editors and one of their feedback is that they are not connecting with some of the scenes because there’s too much psychic distance. If you’re anything like me at the start of my writing journey, you may scratch your head …
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5 tips to self-edit your novel
So, you’ve finished your first draft and getting ready to query literary agents or self-publish your masterpiece. But not so fast. As great as you think your draft is, it needs further revisions. Editing your story may not be the most fun part of writing, especially when you’re re-reading your story for the nth time …
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