Building Stronger Characters
Elena Hartwell’s The Construction of Character helps writers strengthen the craft tools in their toolbox and build stronger characters, regardless of genre.
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Author: Emilya Naymark
Emilya Naymark is the author of the novels Hide in Place Behind the Lie.
Her short stories appear in A Stranger Comes to Town, edited by Michael Koryta, Secrets in the Water, After Midnight: Tales from the Graveyard Shift, River River Journal, Snowbound: Best New England Crime Stories 2017, and 1+30: THE BEST OF MYSTORY.
She lives and writes in the Hudson Valley
Great Expectations
Talking about what your readers expect your story to be and how this can be used to create tension, add surprise, and entertain.
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Plot, Structure, and Beats
Structure, Plot, and Beats: what are they, what is the difference, and are they necessary? Asking for a friend.
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Likeable Characters–In The Eye of The Beholder
I’m on a mission to find a set of common denominators that make characters generally beloved.
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What Happens When Robots Dream For Us
What are we going to do when machines become better at all things creative than we are? When they dream for us?
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3 Tips on Writing What You Know (without confusing people)
Sometimes writing what you know too well can leave readers scratching their heads. How to strike a balance between too deep of a dive and a fascinating peek?
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OMG! I Have the Wrong Murderer!
By Matt Witten. Here I was, two thirds of the way through the first draft of my mystery thriller Killer Story, and doubt held me in its iron grip. Had I chosen the wrong murderer?
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To Launch a Sequel
And then my publisher said something that took me completely off guard, “When can we expect the sequel?”
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My 5 Favorite Books of 2022
Yes, I’m making lists. Aren’t we all? I read a lot this year, as I always do. Most of the books I read were digital and at least half of everything I consumed was an audio book. Not all were released in 2022. These are just the ones that made my life better because they exist.
So here, in no specific order, are 5 books I loved the most:
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Last day of NaNoWriMo
Who Wrote a Novel This Month? According to various statistics, between 350,000 and 450,000 writers banged out a draft for NaNoWriMo.
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