How do you keep your middle act functioning for your plot? How do you avoid ending your story too early? How should you effectively use subplots? And what about tools like the “try-fail” cycle or the hero’s journey? Alida walks us through how to give your characters the perfect level of problems, and the skills to solve them!
What is the Steampunk genre? How real does your science need to be? And does it have to be set in the Victorian era, and in Victorian society? What sort of plot goals should a Steampunk novel have? And what archetypes do you need in order for it to feel Steampunk? Leeland gives us his tips on the perfect mixture to make a Steampunk novel, and how to get started if you are interested in writing one!
What can workshopping your novel with an editor do for you as a writer? What are Kathryn’s issues with Act One? And what does your reader truly need to know about your world and characters? Make sure you zoom out and look at the big picture of what you are trying to achieve with Act One.
Why should author’s know how to craft copy for their book? What are the fundamentals? How do you find the number one conflict in your book? And then how do you make it exciting? What is the structure of a book blurb? And where do most author’s run into problems?
How will your personal history affect how you portray death? What about if you have never experienced anything as tragic as your character is experiencing? How can you use the element of surprise to turn a story on a death? And how should you use death in Act two? We talk about the problem of proximity in death, and whether or not death has genre conventions. In the end, we all agree that this is a great book, if you are ready to really sit and think about death!
I'm Alida
I help people express their gifts to the world.
I do not believe in formulas. I believe that the stories we are compelled to tell the world make demands on us, and it is our privilege to meet those demands in order to reach the most people in the most authentic and compelling way possible.
