As we discussed last week, while law provides a problem, justification alone provides an answer, at least for the real world. As our stories are reflections of the real world (seen in the failure of the antinomian answer in both
Redemption arcs have a difficult problem: how do we deal with the (often horrific) history of the character being redeemed? It’s a real-life problem too. How do we deal with the man who is repenting of a long history of
A distinctive, compelling character is a central part of most good stories, and therefore it’s a difficult goal to achieve for us writers. As a result, we as authors spend a lot of time worrying about how to make our
When I write a story, I sometimes realize that my plot requires a new character. This secondary character,1 therefore, is created as a facilitator of plot (including character arc); he gets the protagonist from point A to point B, or
We’ve all heard the adage, “Show, don’t tell.” It’s practically the first thing any creative writing course teaches, after the formatting requirements, and I’ve made a pun off it myself. It’s sound advice, but like all short-form bits, it’s not
How do we get readers to engage with our stories? It’s a perpetual question in writing, because the plain truth is this: every minute a reader spends on your story is purest charity. He could abandon it after the first
The Holy Grail of characters, according to the internet, is the ‘rounded character’. We, as authors, must strive for a thoroughly realistic person, somebody complex and flawed and capable of surprising the reader at every turn. Sometimes, the demand is
Classifying stuff is a classic pass-time for scientists, critics, and the parents of young children who want to decide whether the brown goo on the floor is baby food or something… more odiferous. Unfortunately, unlike brown-goo-on-the-floor, characters have more than
As one of the big three of writing (whichever big three you subscribe to, mine or the conventional grade school model or something else1), the character-aspect of your story obviously deserves a lot of thought and care. The number of
Third person near is the closest-to-standard perspective there is. Among the big three- first person, third person omniscient, and third person near- it’s a slightly-more-removed version of the first, the common default of the second (I’ll explain this in a