The Wicked Writing Blog

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Showing Tag: "plotting" (Show all posts)

Do Plotting Systems Really Work?

Posted by John Yeoman on Friday, October 12, 2012, In : The Writing Craft 
Should I plot my novel in advance in every detail or let my characters write it their way? It’s the first question every new author faces. Do I opt for story engineering or free-flow creativity? How do I get this book written? 

There’s a lot to be said for the free-flow novel. Allegedly, Dostoyevsky had no idea how The Brothers Karamazov would end. He let his characters determine the plot and ended each scene in a state of mild surprise. Whoever would have thought that Dmitri would have do...

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A Practical 4-Step Way to Turn a Short Story into a Novel

Posted by Liese Sherwood-Fabre on Friday, August 3, 2012, In : Guest Posts 
So you've written a fine short story. You know it has the potential to grow into a great novel. But a novel is not just flash fiction with extra padding. Is it? So what, exactly, do you do? Novelist Liese Sherwood-Fabre faced that challenge and in this week's guest post she reveals the four careful steps she took to turn 800 words into a 10,000-word novella.

In his book Stein on Writing, Sol Stein describes the editing process as “liposuction,” removing the flab from a story. But what do y...

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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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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