by Stephanie Morrill | Aug 17, 2022 | Creativity, First Drafts
If you have spent much time hiking in national parks or government protected land, you may have noticed signs like these: These are areas where the park is being intentional about regrowth. The land can still flourish, but not if a bunch of us are traipsing around on...
by Shannon Dittemore | May 11, 2022 | Discovery Writing, First Drafts, Learning from Other Authors, Story Structure, The Craft of Writing, Writing
Friends! I was listening to the Stories are Soul Food podcast today, and when author ND Wilson shared how he structures the drafting of a novel, it really resonated with me. His process is similar enough to my own style, but with a couple features that I think would...
by Stephanie Morrill | Feb 2, 2022 | Characters, Compelling Character Series, First Drafts, Writing, Writing Tools
In the first post of this series, I talked about how I get to know my characters as I write, not through a bunch of exercises from before I write the book. Last week, I talked about four filters you can use to understand and manipulate your characters’...
by Stephanie Morrill | Jan 5, 2022 | Antagonists, Characters, Compelling Character Series, First Drafts, The Craft of Writing
Hi, writers! I hope you enjoyed your holiday season and have come out on the other side feeling rested and energized. Holidays can also be uniquely draining times, especially if you’re the sort of person who thrives with routine and structure. That’s me! I...
by Stephanie Morrill | Sep 29, 2021 | Characters, Editing, First Drafts
I have a tendency to create overly large casts of characters. I never intend to do this, but I frequently have to spend time in edits pruning away needless people from my first drafts. One technique that has really helped me is to think through each character’s...
by Stephanie Morrill | Sep 1, 2021 | Brainstorming, Discovery Writing, First Drafts, Story Ideas
Story ideas come to us in all different ways. Sometimes our spark of a story idea is a character facing a dilemma or making a hard choice. Other times, we might have an idea for a world we want to explore. This is especially common with fantasy or science fiction...
