Any story can be enhanced with a good romantic subplot, but if romance isn’t your genre, you’re probably worried about how you’d pull it off. You want it to be emotional and meaningful, but not sappy and cliché. Sooner or later, it’s a genre you’ll end up having to explore …
Romance 101: How to Write Characters Falling in Love Read More »
Giving a character insomnia can be a great way of establishing their personality, and that can set the stage for future internal struggles later on in the story. As with almost anything, this is better to “show not tell,” but the difficulty here is doing so in a way that …
Losing Sleep Over How to Write a Character with Insomnia? Read More »
Everybody loves a good villain, but every writer knows that creating a good villain is one of the more difficult things to do. Regardless of whether you want a sympathetic, lovable, or truly despicable villain in your story, you need to put a lot of work into their character to …
Intoxication is a complex biological process, and it can affect people in a variety of different ways—making it a particularly difficult thing to write about. However, the acts of drinking, partying, and drowning sorrows in a bottle are prevalent themes in our world and in literature. Chances are, you’ll have …
Minor characters are an often grossly underutilized tool in storytelling. Any good story is going to be filled to the brim with extras, whether they’re neighbors, store owners, teachers, or even creepy gravediggers that tell the main characters the haunting history of their town. Minor characters are constantly appearing in …
Currency is an important part of any developed society, so it isn’t an aspect you should ignore if you’re creating a world for your story. Sure, you could use the standard bronze, silver, and gold pieces, but that doesn’t really add anything special to your story. You can use the …
Annoying children are unfortunately overly prevalent in literature and media. It’s not that writers deliberately create these characters to be annoying, but they end up that way when they aren’t given the same amount of backstory and personality as the adults in the story. Child characters deserve to have just …
A Guide to Writing Child Characters Authentically Read More »
This is it—the big moment! Your characters are about to meet the enemy that has been ruining their lives, they just have to walk down a long, imposing hallway to get to his office. The scene is meticulously crafted and eerie, and you’ve thought out exactly how you want to …
If you’ve created a fictional society, species, or even an entire world, then you’re probably looking for ways to make it seem more authentic. One of the ways to add a little life to your fictional society is to add a religion and system of beliefs for them to subscribe …
It can be tough to write a character falling asleep. Falling asleep isn’t something that you can be very aware of as it is happening, so it can be difficult to really capture the feeling. Because of this, writers have devised all sorts of techniques to avoid writing it, but …
How to Write a Character Falling Asleep in First-Person Read More »
