The Guide to Writing fantasy and Science Fiction

by Philip Athans

Author Jess Lebow offers these words of advice: “Remember Newton’s Third Law of Motion—for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, for every move your protagonist takes, the antagonist driving the conflict in the scene (be that a character, an environment, or a circumstance) needs to make one too. The only time this stops is when the conflict is fully resolved.”

Heroes must have flaws, but they must not be overwhelmed by them. They have to overcome those flaws as the story progresses.

Dialog is one of the things that makes a novel; the absence of dialog makes a textbook.

What people say is secondary to why they say it.