Plot Development

Want Jerry as Your Mentor? Learn More You can use a variety of literary devices to add conflict and tension to narrative fiction. But few make readers work harder than the unreliable narrator, a device that, true to its name, allows the storyteller to take readers on a wild goose chase as they determine what’s […]

Timeless, beloved fictional characters have flaws that make them accessible and believable. Even superheroes. And while a lead character’s flaw or weakness might be major, it doesn’t have to be. It could be a simple lack of patience or an annoying sense of self-importance. Indiana Jones had a major aversion to snakes. In short, you […]

Want Jerry as Your Mentor? Learn More Knowing the history of your main character allows you to craft a character arc that keeps readers engaged from start to finish. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, author C.S. Lewis sends the Pevensie children to live with a professor in the English countryside to escape […]

Want Jerry as Your Mentor? Learn More Guest Post by Tami Nantz Memorable, believable characters are crucial to every good story. Consider what makes these literary classics so unforgettable: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien Little Women […]

Written well, a flashback can give your readers insight into a character and add depth to your story. Done poorly, it can feel out of place, forced, and worse—cliched. A flashback constitutes an interruption of your main onstage present story to depict events from the past. If you flash back, you must have a concrete […]