The Wicked Writing Blog

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Browsing Archive: June, 2012

The Laziest Way to Find a Winning Plot

Posted by John Yeoman on Saturday, June 30, 2012, In : The Writing Craft 
What’s the easiest way to find a plot for a story or novel? Let it find you!

Just today I read a newspaper article about the chief executive of a media company - already a millionaire - who had voted himself a multi-million pound bonus for the fifth successive year. Then he had used dubious schemes to avoid paying tax on it.

I felt outraged, Was he worth such a reward? No. Did he invest his surplus wealth in Good Works? No. He was an icon of unmitigated greed.

And a plot started to emerge...

I ...

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Crime queen Kathy Reichs reveals her secrets

Posted by John Yeoman on Saturday, June 16, 2012, In : The Writing Craft 
To stumble upon Kathy Reichs is like discovering literature for the first time. Not content with being a world-class forensic scientist, Ms Reichs has also mastered the craft of novel writing and has dethroned Patricia Cornwell as the queen of noir crime. But unlike Cornwell, Reichs has wit, humanity and depth.

This lady can write! What’s her secret?

If you’ve read Cornwell, you’ll know she’s a water spider. She scats across the surface of events. (‘The room was cold. I inventoried th...
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Gag Your Characters—and Free Your Dialogue

Posted by Kathryn Craft on Saturday, June 2, 2012, In : Guest Posts 
Have you ever wanted to make your dialogue so powerful that readers are drawn, irresistibly, into your story? The secret could lie, not in what your characters say, but in what they don’t say!

In this guest post by pro editor Kathryn Craft, you'll discover how to make your dialogue glow with inner structure.

Some writers say they can’t begin to write until they hear their characters talking. Then writing becomes as easy as popping a water balloon: just let all your characters’ deepest tho...
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John Yeoman

Dr John Yeoman, MA Oxon, MPhil, PhD Creative Writing, FSRS*  is a UK university tutor in the short story. He has 42 years experience as a successful commercial writer, newspaper editor and one-time chairman of a major PR consultancy.

He has published innumerable works of humour, some intended to be humorous.

* Founder, the Society for the Rehabilitation of the Semi-colon