Character dialogue is one of the six essential story elements that isn't always needed but can really enhance a story when included in a short story or novel. Dialogue is more than just chit-chat or verbal communication, but it allows readers to know more about characters' fears, desires, inner worlds, motivations, and personalities within a fictional story aside from what role they play, what they do, or what physically look like on the surface. Most writers refer to charact

Book marketing is the hardest part for many beginner self-published authors after releasing their first books because it requires them to sell something and step out of the comfort zones of their creative writing cocoons. Other writers who aren't too fond about it may think it's boring or time-consuming. Nonetheless, while book marketing does take hard work, knowing the secret sauce of it can make it a whole lot easier and even more fun. It can also be helpful to know the fun

Second-person point-of-view is the least common point-of-view used in fiction, and mostly present in poetry, self-help non-fiction books, educational textbooks, instructional writing, or interactive narratives. It's also the most intimate and immediate, merging the reader with the narrative written text. As there are with first-person , third-person limited , and third-person omniscient , there are certain key points that are important when using this rare particular point-of

Third-person omniscient is the one of the least common point-of-views used by writers within short stories and novels. From my previous blog post, I discussed third-person limited point-of-view and mentioned there are actually two different third-person perspectives. Well, third-person omniscient is the second third-person point of view. It ' s also known as the "godlike" or "all-knowing" point-of-view, or what I call it, "the invisible narrator." This is because this persp

In a previous blog post, I've discussed and went over first-person point-of-view . The next point-of-view I'll be going over is third-person limited. Now, you might be wondering what's significant about the whole "limited" reference, but it's mostly for identification purposes. I'll get into the differences between third-person limited and omniscient later; but for now, keep in mind there's more than one type of third-person perspective. Third-person limited is the most commo

First-person point-of-view is known to be the hardest kind of point-of-view for most writers to write because it requires them to literally "get inside of a character's head" or for them to become the character themselves. This requires skillful writing and being almost submerged within a single character, and just one reason why I rarely write in the first-person point-of-view. Writers also have to thoroughly know the focal or viewpoint character well, such as their though

If you previously recall, point-of-view was one of the top story elements that I went over in my six essential story elements blog post. This particular element for short stories or novels is important for a couple of reasons; but primarily, point-of-view can be thought of as the eyes of the story when it comes to writing fiction. Just think about how we use this term when not talking about fiction. Point-of-view is when one makes an effort of seeing things from another's p

Whether through paintings, novels and books, news and journalism, or music, different types of creative stories can be powerful works of art and have emotional impact on the seer, reader, or listener. Although writers use a pen, pencil, or computer instead of a paintbrush, writing can be similar to painting a portrait for readers to imagine and behold with their eyes when writers create imagery in their short stories and books. One episode from the 1960s western Bonanza cal

Conflict is one of if not the most important story element in a short story or novel because it's what helps keep readers engrossed within stories and books. Similar to plot, conflict is an engine that moves a story forward. After all, if nothing is going on and there's nothing to overcome, there's no story to tell. External conflict is the obstacles and complications outside of characters in their story world, such as an altercation between two opposing attorneys, a fore

External conflict is the impact of outside forces that come against characters in a story. There are a number of different types of conflict, obstacles, and challenges characters could face during the plotline, but specifically there are six forces that characters are more than likely to deal with in some way or another. These include natural disasters or storms , supernatural or evil spirits , governments or institutions , people or villains, animals or creatures, and socia

In previous blog posts, I've discussed the four operations in characters, and the generic and complex emotions characters feel when...

Internal conflict is the inner battle within characters when they collide with external forces. Character emotion is one of the most important aspects of all fictional characters whether they're humanlike characters or animals like in the allegorical novella, "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. Emotions allow writers to impact their readers and cause them to feel something and relate and connect with their characters. There is a wide range of emotions characters can experience; b

Let's say you're a hiker lost in a national park while being on a camping trip. You're troubled and concerned about your safety; but...

Imagine you're a firefighter that rushes to an emergency house fire. The burning flames and suffocating smoke of the house fire is the...

One of my all-time favorite board games to play is Clue . You know, the one with the colorful suspects where players have to identify the...

When we think about the writing process, it's quite similar to an assembly factory or the water cycle many of us learned in science class...

When we think about tropes, the first two genres that come to mind are oftentimes fantasy or romance. However, Christian fiction also has...

Christian fiction is a main, broad category of Christian books that incorporates a Christ worldview, emphasizing themes of faith,...

Social media marketing can be a powerful tool to use for book marketing. However, it's not the only way, nor the most effective when it...

If writers really think about it, story structure can be similar to the functionality and foundation of different systems of the human body. There are four specific components of the anatomy of story structure that together make up the DNA of a cohesive, well-organized story. These four components include goals, characters, plot or story arcs, and scenes.