Frank Herbert’s Dune: Writing Lesson 3

I finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert, and as a first time reader of the series (Yeah.  I know.  Where’ve you been?) I was amazed by the deep philosophical nature of the book.  More than that, though, as I have been posting on this blog, old Frank Herbert has many tips to teach us about the

3 Step Method to Finding and Fixing Plot Holes

My latest novel, The Terminarch Plot, is probably my most ambitious work yet.  I spent at least 6 months designing the backstory and various otherworldly settings where the series would take place. However, once the first novel was complete and off to the beta-readers, I was informed right away that there were several plot holes that

3 Ways to Keep Your Villain from Monologuing

When my kids were little, they loved watching the Disney Pixar film The Incredibles.  During this film there is a scene where the villain, Syndrome, defeats Mr. Incredible with his terrible machine and then when he’s telling Mr. Incredible about his evil plans Incredible throws a log at him.  Syndrome dodges it, traps Mr. Incredible in

Using Setting to Develop a Plot

I’ve seen many different articles around the inter-webs about plot development.  Usually there are two schools of thought: Create highly developed character bios and then they will inform what kind of plot needs to develop. Create a highly developed plot and then the characters will take shape based on the plot created. I have another

Character Death Should Be Premeditated

I’m a big fan of fiction and screenplays that kill off major characters mid-stream.  It happened in Breaking Bad.  It happens all the time in The Walking Dead.  The problem is that an amateur writer will kill off characters for the sake of killing them off or for shock value without thinking through the character death and

10 Questions to Spark a Plot

In the past week I have been teaching my English students how to write short stories.  They began with a set of questions that caused them to think or brainstorm about what they might write about.  Many of them chose to write about zombie stories, effectively writing rough drafts that ended up reading more like