As a writer, the hardest choice to make is what to write about. Ideas for novels are everywhere, but can they be developed into a good story? How do we choose the best ideas for the best chance of success? Way back in 2019, I wrote review of Erik Brok’s book , “The idea - …
Author: John
Writer of speculative fiction.
Building Heroic Characters
All good stories are about character. The job of a good storyteller is to create an emotional bond between those characters and the reader as they endure the conflict in the story. It’s a vicarious emotional experience where the reader experiences the hopes and fears of their hero or heroine. It's a connection. We don't …
Plot Points, Turning Points and Reversals
If you're a writer and interested in the art of storytelling then you can learn a lot from the world of movies by breaking down stories into their component parts. In my previous blog I focused on how the story narrative can be broken down further into sequences. Yet another way to break down the …
Foreshadowing and Chekhov’s Gun
In my last blog, I looked at the importance of creating tension around the dramatic question of a story. For example, will Luke and Obi Wan get the Death Star plans to the rebels? Will Indie find the Ark of the Covenant? In simple term, tension is created by putting the main character in increasing …
Sequences and Tension
In last month's blog, I covered some aspects of sequences for writers, and in particular Darrin and Travis Donelly's '10-day Screenplay'. This month I want to look again at sequences from a slightly different perspective by looking at the use of 'tension'. In Paul Joseph Gulino's book, 'Screenwriting the sequence approach - The hidden structure …
Another look at sequences for writers
Recently I was going through my kindle library and I came across the "10-Day Screenplay" by Darrin Donnelly and Travis Donelly. It's been a long time since I read it, and so I started to flick through the pages. I know the first time I read it, I thought it presented nothing new on the …
A Sci-Fi Writer’s Dilemma
It's July 2023, and I have just realised it's over a year since I wrote my blog on "Taking stock". At that time I had decided to take some time out from writing to pursue a research project and set up a database for the mass of information I had accumulated on various different academic …
How many story lines in a novel?
A story is about a character or characters who desperately wants something and pursues a goal through a series of actions and outcomes that escalate to the climax of the story, and the eventual resolution of the story. In simple terms -- this chain of cause and effect events is the 'plot' of a story. …
My Seven writing rules
First of all, I want to make it clear there are no rules for writing or story-telling. These are simply my rules, or perhaps more accurately 'preferences', that I have adopted for my own purposes. They worked for me and helped me publish four novels. If you're starting to write for the first time, maybe …
Science fiction or science fact?
I wondered about which topic to cover this month, and I chose my favourite genre, scifi. My favourite scifi authors were Herbert, Heinlein, Asimov, Clark, Aldis and Dick, all sadly no longer with us. Of course, there are new writers today; but none quite fill the boots of those classic writers. The 1980s and 1990s …
JMJ Williamson 