Hippie

A good premise is that a character has a problem in their day to day life. Then something comes up, posing another problem (the main story problem). By solving the ...

I changed spouse to partner. I didn't add "are you single?" because I think the way a single person reacts to someone assuming them to be attatched will tell you ...

Think of each moment in your story as a nexus in time from which infinite pathways could unfold. Explore these pathways before deciding which one to take. Don't just take ...

Try making the new character and one of the old characters have a disagreement. Show it from both of their perspectives, and make the new character right, and the old ...

Well it could work with some people. For me it would end with me saying "shut up, my idea's better." (Unless my partner's bigger than me) Even if you can ...

Digging up this old thread because one of the blogs I follow has just published an article on this very subject.

Planning? Who needs planning? :) Seriously, though, I don't actually plan-- that makes the story boring to me, since I like to discover what happens along the way. I've learned, ...

So I made up a character questionnaire, and thought it might be good if I put it here both to help others, and so that we can all add questions ...

I know what you mean. I won't show anything to my parents or friends until I'm really happy with it. I certainly wouldn't flaunt my first draft around. That's the ...

Your welcome. Another good thing to do before you start writing is to imagine yourself becoming your character at various points in the story, and writing a stream-of-consciousness from their ...

A good exercise to do (to make your book longer or just more interesting) is to take a couple of scenes and brainstorm as many possible ways that scene could ...

Start with a vague idea, think of some cool scenes you could put in, some interesting characters. You know, just mull it over for a while. Then start with your ...

I'd been falling into a bit of a rut with my writing, when someone told me, "think of every moment in your story as a nexus from which any of ...

Snoink, your answer is beautiful in its simplicity.

A minority really only seems token if you make their minority aspect the centrepoint of their character. If you have a heterosexual character, you don't base their personalities and actions ...