Sometimes I like to write a story that is all dialogue. It’s very in-the-moment, but obviously it can be challenging since there is no exposition or description to help explain things. And you can’t have more than two characters or you’ll lose track of who is speaking. Another interesting challenge is to write a story…
Tag: characters
Muse on Monday – November 10, 2025
I’ve always loved detailed models and have had a fascination with stories like The Borrowers, where tiny people live inside the walls of a normal-sized house. Part of the fun is seeing how they overcome obstacles that are easy for us (getting up onto the table is like climbing a mountain, for example), but the…
Writing Corner: The Noob
The Noob There are times in a story where you need to explain things to your readers. It all depends on the type of story you are writing. If you are writing a story about middle school students in daily life, you can assume that your reader will already understand most things in the story…
Muse on Monday – March 31, 2025
The duel: it is a staple of action movies, like the standoff in a western movie. At the climax of the story or movie, the hero and villain face off, one on one. Of course this doesn’t have to be a physical confrontation. It could be a debate or a chess game or even two…
Muse on Monday – March 17, 2025
Have you ever read or written a story around one word? I don’t mean as a theme, but literally using the same word multiple times in the story. Sometimes this technique can be used ironically when a word has more than one meaning or it can just be done for fun. I can’t think of…
Muse on Monday – February 24, 2025
I’m leaving on a fairly extensive trip to Asia today, so that got me thinking about travel. When you take a long trip, no matter how much preparation you do, it always feels like you are missing something. Of course, sometimes you have to leave unprepared. Refugees are in that situation, where you just take…
Muse on Monday – February 17, 2025
Of the five senses, the most used for description is sight. However, it’s very rare to only have sight to work with. One place where this happens is on security camera footage. There is no dialogue so we have to guess from body language and actions what is happening. Sometimes it’s obvious (a guy is…
Muse on Monday – February 10, 2025
People love symmetry because it feels right having things match up. You have a superhero, but also a supervillain. You start your story on a bus and end it on a bus. You have two main characters, one very rich and one very poor. There are lots of ways to have symmetry or mirror elements…
Muse on Monday – May 27, 2024
Hello and happy Memorial Day if you are in the United States. It’s pretty common to have an elderly relative, often an aunt or uncle, in a story as a helper character. They are good sources of mystery (either something they know or something in their house), a source of sudden wealth when they die…
Muse on Monday – January 31, 2022
One part of writing fiction is putting yourself in your characters’ shoes. Sure, you know what you would do, but what would they do? Everyone has their own personalities and histories. It’s up to you, as the writer, to decide not only what your characters do, but why they do it. Which brings us to…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 