August Seminars: How to Plan a Story

When it comes to writing a story, the number one, most important thing you can do...is planning. No joke. Planning is the most important thing. Now, I've discussed creating characters, and that is a great thing to start with, but once you have those characters, you need to know what to do with them. If you don't, you can have the best characters in the world but they will fall apart in an instant. This is where planning comes in.

So, for this post, we will talk about that planning process, particularly mine, why you should do it and how you should go about it to craft an excellent story!

August Seminars: How to Create Good Characters

Characters are ridiculously subjective. What I might hate, my best friend might love. Maybe there's even someone indifferent to that same character. It can really run the gamut. However! That does not mean there aren't "good" characters and "bad" characters. While each can still have a measure of subjectivity to that particular point, there are certain things to look for and certain things to avoid when it comes to writing a good character.

In this post I'll be discussing those particular things, including some (hopefully) good characters of my own.

August Seminars: How to Receive Reviews and Criticism

In my last post, I spoke about how to craft a summary, and while I'd love to get into the nitty-gritty of all that other writing stuff, rather than the end result of it, I feel it's very important to talk about what happens when you get your story out there: feedback.

When you eventually post your story, you're going to be getting plenty of feedback (hopefully), but the thing is that not all of it is good. And not all of it is positive. In fact, it may be harsh. To that end, it's important to discuss how to spot the good from the bad. That is what this post will be talking about.