Florence Witkop's Blog, page 32
November 6, 2018
What screams “I’m generic’ when it comes to writing?
I don’t believe that the term ‘generic’ had much meaning when you are discussing authors and writing. Some of the best writing ever can be described as generic, cliche, and any other term you can think of that describes themes and characters that have been used so much that they can seem overused. Consider Shakespeare. …
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October 30, 2018
How can I use my life’s experiences to write short stories?
For many years I paid part of my family’s bills by writing confession stories. They are true stories and the author’s name is never given. I wondered how it would work using my own life experiences for stories. If I would be criticized. The funny thing is, the few times that family was there when …
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October 28, 2018
What should the first chapter of my fantasy novel contain?
It should contain what the first chapter of what every novel should contain: the seeds of the conclusion. It’s sometimes called the ‘author’s promise’ to the reader that they are about to read a book that will conclude with the solution to the problem that the beginning posited. That brings the beginning of the story …
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October 26, 2018
How long can a fantasy novel go before introducing a villain? Does a story need a villain?
No story requires an actual villain but stories are normally about overcoming something and a villain fills the bill nicely. That said, introduce the villain as soon as possible. Characters introduced late in the story tend to be ignored by readers because they are used to having all important characters introduced early on so as …
A copy of my newsletter
News and notes from Florence Witkop A BIT ABOUT ME Here goes — my first real newsletter and that’s saying a lot from someone as technologically inept as I am. But, as with all writers, I have things I want to say and that means figuring out how this newsletter thing works, starting with a …
October 22, 2018
Novels and novellas
I started my latest book this morning. It’s a time travel novella to be part of a boxed set of time travel stories. I had it plotted so I started writing. When I took a break I looked over what I’d written and wondered if I’d have to pare down the story because it might …
My feeble attempt at a newsletter!
I have a confession to those of you who don’t already know a sad fact about me: I’m technologically challenged. That means that computer stuff that other people can do in minutes take me hours — days — weeks. I’m not kidding. A fellow author, when discussing MailChimp for newsletters, said it’s easy to figure …
October 21, 2018
What is the word for those that write as if they are someone than themselves, as in writing, pretending you are him or her?
If you write as if you are the person telling the story — the viewpoint character — it’s called First Person. It’s a good way to write because it gets the writer into the head of their viewpoint character.
So, I wrote a fiction novella draft. What now?
Now you turn that draft into a finished product, which can be done if you follow the steps that are outlined in lots of classes, books, videos, etc. They all go something like this (with individual variations, of course) : Make sure your story follows the steps of ‘The Hero’s Journey.’ That’s a book outlining …
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October 17, 2018
How much time did it take to write your first novel (from start to finish)?
This question makes me chuckle because there’s no real answer. I suspect that most authors will say the same thing. It’s relatively easy to say how long your second novel took to write. Or your third. Or fourth. And so on. But your first? It took forever! Absolutely forever!, Because your first novel is a …
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