by Terra Caldwell | Aug 1, 2025 | Craft basics, New Writers
Today’s readers expect a story to be shown to them, not told to them, so even if you’re a big fan of telling, a publisher won’t accept your piece unless you show what’s going on, and readers are more likely to give you bad reviews if most of...
by Terra Caldwell | Jul 12, 2025 | Craft basics, New Writers
Here is an example that I’m making up on the spot, so it’s going to be a bit rough, but it works. We’ll call this “The Very Bad Birthday.” Note: What follows IS a sort of outline for a story. It’s long, and for that I apologize, but stories are long and complicated!...
by Terra Caldwell | Jul 11, 2025 | Craft basics, New Writers
Some people will tell you that literature is “character over plot,” and that commercial fiction is “plot over character.” This is untrue. Plot is generated by character. It doesn’t matter how much money or what kind of readership you expect to get out of your story....
by Terra Caldwell | Jul 11, 2025 | Craft basics, New Writers
When creating a character’s three big traits (the Inner Wound/Big Lie, the Want, and the Need), it’s important to know how these work together, and why. The plot in your story springs from the character’s quest to resolve a conflict or problem that he or she has....
by Terra Caldwell | Jul 11, 2025 | Craft basics, New Writers
Before you start writing, it’s a good idea to invest some time and attention into the creation of your protagonist(s) and your villain. This is how you do that. First, you will typically have one protagonist per story. Some complicated romances have two*, but almost...
by Terra Caldwell | Jul 11, 2025 | Craft basics, New Writers
There are three basic kinds of character arcs. Flat character arcs: In these arcs, the protagonist is great, but the world is not great, and the protagonist’s quest is to fix the world. At the end, the protagonist is still the same, but the world has improved. The...
