by Sharla Rae Recently, at one of our WITS critique meetings, we found ourselves asking why one of our partner’s characters was doing something that appeared illogical. The writer explained it wasn’t illogical at all. It fit her character’s motivation. To which we replied, “what motivation? Shouldn’t you clue us in so we’ll understand her […]

By Monthly Contributor, Shannon Donnelly We’ve all heard “show, don’t tell” and there is value in that advice. If all you do is tell a story, how does the reader participate with his or her imagination? However, a book is not a movie. While a movie requires everything to be shown (or an often awkward […]

Writers In The Storm welcomes back Kara Lennox, a.k.a. Karen Leabo for some more plot-fixing magic. Kara is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than sixty novels of romance and romantic suspense for Harlequin and Random House. AND she’s a 2012 DOUBLE RITA Finalist! Problem #4: A lack of clear-cut goals for your characters In […]

By Tiffany Lawson Inman In theatre, dialogue is king. It is the lifeline of the story.  Character's lines bouncing back and forth between each other.  Confiding, conspiring, commiserating, coercing, or caring.  Dialogue works to create emotion, conflict, show character, and it always moves the dramatic action forward. It seems that in fiction writing, dialogue isn’t […]

Please Welcome Mario Acevedo to WITS - he's a best selling novelist and instructor over at the Lawson Academy, so you know he knows what he's talking about! Here he is: Mario here: I’ve been invited to share a little of what I know about writing tension and conflict. Let’s first ask ourselves why we […]