How dynamic and authentic are the female characters in your fiction? How do you know whether they’re strong? Do they have what Chuck Wendig calls “agency” which is the power to influence the story? There are plenty of women in classical literature who were strong, but sometimes it’s hard to…
Author: Lisa Hall-Wilson
Are You Writing Female Characters Who Are Too Stupid To Live?
Writing strong female characters has become this… thing recently among writerly types. Nobody wants to write a tired trope or cliched character, and yet they keep popping up. Fantasy is particularly bad, but historical and horror are only a couple of other genres guilty for it. If your character is…
The Power of Touch in Fiction
Interpersonal touch is a huge part of any society regardless of time or culture. A pat on the back, a heavy grip, a shoulder knock, we touch ourselves and other people all the time, and are programmed to interpret all of these subtle nuanced touches by filtering them through social…
4 Ways To Be Invisible with Deep Point of View
When writing in Deep point of view, the author’s job is to be invisible. Readers want to immerse themselves in the story in real time, they want to take the journey with your characters and experience everything the character is going through. They want the virtual reality headset. You…
A Simple Tip To Increase Tension in Fiction
Have you considered the importance of doors? No matter what kind of story you’re writing, being able to increase tension in a scene, to get the reader to shift to their edge of their seat, is tricky business. Doors are an opportunity to pause, force the character to take a…
Surprise Your Readers
How do you surprise readers? The reality of genre fiction, especially, is that you know how it ends. The guy gets the girl. The good cop catches the bad guy. The ordinary girl triumphs over the monster. You get the idea. Novels promise an escape, entertainment, characters a reader would…