Narrator No-No

In the many years of writing fiction, I have discovered about twenty ways to narrate a story, most of them huge mistakes for the flow of the story I am trying to tell.  Since landing an agent, I found out that there are also some narrator types or mistakes that are off-putting to modern readers

Killing the Narrator

When creating an outline for a novel, I think very carefully about point of view. The biggest problem I usually have is picking a point of view that works for the entire novel but also has a thematic purpose. Today’s most common point of view is third person singular which follows one character throughout the

A Word About Flashbacks

The flashback can be one of the most wonderful and magical ways to give background for a character.  It can also become a horribly overused device that can cripple a text.  It works for comic effect on Family Guy because its overuse becomes the butt of the joke, but when writing fiction it can be something

Direct Characterization

There are many ways to create a character for a reader.  Many writers stumble in and out of indirect characterization, which is where the writer takes on the omniscient narrator voice and “tells” us everything about the character that we should know.  In many respects, “telling” a reader what a character is all about is