Below is a talk Andrew Stanton (writer of Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo and Wall-E) gave on ‘Clues to a Great Story’. One of his theories really resonated with me – he calls it the unifying theory of 2+2. His explanation was that you don’t give the audience the answer, you let them…
Craft
Writing craft books
Like any writer I have a bunch of craft books on my bookshelf and kindle. Some I haven’t yet opened *blush*. Not that I bought them thinking they wouldn’t be useful and it’s not that I no longer want to read them. I do. It’s just that time taken reading a craft book could be…
Passive versus active voice
One of my red flags to watch for when I edit is passive voice. And I usually find a lot of them (they can be identified by words such as ‘was’ and ‘by’). Writing with a passive voice always seems to be how my drafts evolve. Then during my edits I need to find them…
Writing Tips
I received these writing tips via email, with the credit going to George Takei (Star Wars fame). Not sure how true that is, but I couldn’t resist sharing: Avoid Alliteration. Always. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They’re old hat.) Employ the vernacular. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.…
The mathematics behind conflict
Conflict between characters is one of the pivotal elements that keep a reader turning the pages. I was thinking about this during the week and it came to me that conflict reminded me of the fractal poster my brother had on his wall when we were kids. If you aren’t familiar with them fractals make…