by Stephanie Morrill | Apr 20, 2020 | Beginning Writer's Guide To Finishing A Novel, Story Endings, Writing
Help arriving after the dark moment is an element of stories that follow the hero’s journey framework. You don’t have to have it to tell a good story, but it’s a great opportunity for your side characters to shine and can be one of the most meaningful scenes in the...
by Stephanie Morrill | Apr 13, 2020 | Beginning Writer's Guide To Finishing A Novel, Dark Night of the Soul, Story Endings, Story Structure
If you celebrate Easter, I hope you had an enjoyable holiday! I’ve always really enjoyed celebrating Easter with church, family, and my kids dressed in cute spring clothes that it’s not quite warm enough for yet. I always enjoy the day … but the...
by Stephanie Morrill | Apr 6, 2020 | Beginning Writer's Guide To Finishing A Novel, Characters
One story element that often feels mushy in the middle of our books is our cast of characters. We sometimes are so focused on getting our main character down the river, we forget about the lives of all those side characters we set up in act one. Or we can have the...
by Stephanie Morrill | Mar 30, 2020 | Beginning Writer's Guide To Finishing A Novel, Story Middles, Story Structure, Writing
I took a break from the series last week because it seemed right to acknowledge that all of us have likely seen some kind of shift—great or small—in our lives with the pandemic going on. If you didn’t see Shan’s post on Friday, You Can Do The Next Thing,...
by Stephanie Morrill | Mar 16, 2020 | Beginning Writer's Guide To Finishing A Novel, Story Middles
Last week, I shared the analogy of your story being like a canoe ride down a river. In the opening of your story, your character is paddling down a river they’ve traveled for a long time. This is their normal world. Out of the blue, they’re surprised by a...
by Stephanie Morrill | Mar 9, 2020 | Beginning Writer's Guide To Finishing A Novel, Story Middles
Let’s imagine your story is like a river, and your main character is traveling down it in a canoe. When we meet your character on page one, they’ve been paddling the same way for a long time. Maybe they don’t like it, but it’s comfortable and seems safe. It’s gotten...
