Top 10 Storytelling Cliches Writers Need To Stop Using
By Rob W. Hart
There are certain storytelling clichés writers go back to again and again. And they shouldn't. Because they are terrible, and they need to be destroyed.
O-day ou-yay eak-spay ingon-Klay?: Exploring constructed languages
In:
Language, Literary Devices
What do the Starship Enterprise, Boonville California, and an Icelandic band all have in common? Their own language! Explore a few unique constructed languages with me.
Bringing the Lie to Life: What Your First Two Pages Can Tell You
Using particular details brings your lie to life.
6 Ways You're Molesting Your Metaphors
By Rob D. Young
In:
Literary Devices, Metaphor
Including mixed metaphors, cliche metaphors, ambiguous implications, too close to literal, referencing outside the common experience, and over-extending your metaphors.
Understanding the Objective Correlative
One way to embed a central theme in a story is with the use of a literary device commonly referred to as the Objective Correlative.
Up Close and Personal: A Personality Expose of the Personal Essay
Get to know the Personal Essay by reading this article. Get to know yourself by writing one.
Storyville: Narrative Hooks
In:
Character, Craft, Dialogue, Literary Devices, Narrative Hooks, Plot, POV, Setting, Storyville, Structure
Writing a great narrative hook isn't easy, but it's one way to grab your audience and never let them go.
Art and the Aphorism
Love them or hate them, writers can learn a lot about sentence structure and wordplay by experimenting with the timeless artform of the aphorism.
The Benefits of Free Indirect Discourse
Writers who find themselves wrestling with point-of-view problems may want to consider a technique that combines the best of two narrative modes.
Transition As Metaphor
Incorporate these principles to not only transition smoothly from scene to scene, but to add a new layer of metaphor for the manipulation of meaning and theme.
Narrative and the Moving Image: What Film Can Teach Us About Fiction Writing
Fiction writers can learn a great deal about craft by examining some of the common storytelling techniques used in modern film.
Is This Your Card? How Michael Chabon Uses Suspense in Literary Fiction
A study of how Michael Chabon uses Suspense in literary fiction to keep the reader reading and to move the story forward.
The Heavy Hand of Didacticism
Why overwriting and needless instruction have a habit of killing a story every time.
False Starts, Dead Ends and Bad Beginnings: A Guide to Successful Storytelling Patterns
Why failing to establish clear narrative patterns or ignoring a story’s natural capacity to surprise can render an otherwise compelling work into an instant dud.
Drag it Out: How to Use Extended Metaphors for Maximum Effect
A discussion of successful extended metaphors and how to create your own.
Writing in the Negative
Sometimes the most compelling elements of a story are the ideas and themes that are hinted at but aren't placed directly on the page.
The Myth of Writer’s Block
An understanding of how the human mind operates proves that a temporary lack of creative ideas is not the result of “writer's block,” but the result of something else entirely.
“Scuse me while I kiss this guy.”: Malaprops, Puns, Spoonerisms, Eggcorns, and other hilarity-inducing word mix-ups.
Words are flexible and a writer can have a lot of fun using these devices.
That’s So Meta: Writing A Story About Writing A Story
In:
Cervantes, Craft, Dave Eggers, Don Quixote, Literary Devices, metafiction, Narrator, nonfiction, Plot, POV, Structure
When narrators escape--a discussion of metafiction.
Writing Sentences With Impact
A guide to writing more active, more immediate, more powerful sentences that will grab your reader’s attention and make them remember what you’ve written.
Out of Order: A Discussion of Nonlinear Narrative Structure
In:
Craft, Jennifer Egan, Literary Devices, Little Red Riding Hood, Memento, NaNoWriMo, Narrator, Non-linear, Structure
A Discussion of Non-linear Narrative Structure
