I Love Reading And Writing!

When you are just starting a new project, one of the first things you must decide is which point of view to use.

I can’t believe another week has gone by already! And with the bombings in Boston, the explosion in Texas, and now one of the Boston bombers being killed, it’s been a very dramatic week. I’ve been keeping one eye on the news and one eye on my homework for days now.

But now it’s Friday, and in case you don’t know, every day I scour the internet looking for articles that are helpful to me as a beginning writer. When I find something, I will share it over Twitter. Each Friday, I will post what I call a link round-up of all the helpful articles I found that week.

Check out this week’s link round-up for articles on writing endings, getting organized, plus much more!

To the shapeless chaos of life, the fiction writer brings order. -Peter Selgin

In fiction, many of us begin with characters, feelings, and events from our own lives. But lives are messy things and the events are often only loosely related (if at all).

When it comes to plotting my stories, I am definitely an outliner. I like to know ahead of time which direction my story is going in. Of course, I’m always open to change as well. Sometimes, the characters take things in a whole new direction than I’d originally planned. In that case, I simply adjust my outline to include those changes. Having an outline doesn’t mean it’s set in stone.

When it comes to plotting my stories, I am definitely an outliner. I like to know ahead of time which direction my story is going in. Of course, I’m always open to change as well. Sometimes, the characters take things in a whole new direction than I’d originally planned. In that case, I simply adjust my outline to include those changes. Having an outline doesn’t mean it’s set in stone.

Yesterday’s  link-round up included helpful articles on scene structure, beginnings and endings, what it means to be a new writer, plus much more!

Today’s link-round up includes helpful articles on scene structure, beginnings and endings, what it means to be a new writer, plus much more!

Not long ago, I pulled out a piece of writing I’d started over a year ago that I’d abandoned shortly after realizing it just didn’t work. I thought maybe taking another look at it, so long after I’d actually written it, would help me see it in a different light.

I started to read and quickly realized what the problem was. I didn’t start the story in the right place.

Today I’d like to talk about using multiple points of view. I really like multiple POV because the story is being told by several characters so you get to see different people’s interpretations of events, which provides more depth and insight than first-person POV can convey. But using multiple points of view can cause problems. They can easily get out of control and turn your story into a mess. That’s why it’s important to know how to give each character a voice without having them talk over one another.