6 Books with Warped Timelines to Celebrate Groundhog Day, Bill-Murray-style
It's Groundhog Day, the perfect excuse for you to read about time travel and warped timelines.
"The Autodidacts": Thomas Kendall On Writing Without An Outline
Fortunately, your source is infinitely replenishable: On writing without an outline, out of an image you don’t understand, towards a beauty you’re not sure exists.
Storyville: The Intersection Between Plotting and Pantsing
Finding the intersection between plotting and pantsing.
Storyville: From Baseline to Variation—How to Set and Expand Expectations
How to set the baseline and then take your readers somewhere else entirely.
Storyville: Building Up Your Horror Story Before You Tear It Down
Tips on how to build up your horror story before you tear it all down.
Stick the Landing: How to End a Horror Story
By Peter Derk
Endings are the make or break of horror stories. Stop blowing it.
Storyville: How to Write a Massive, Multi-Pronged Hook
If you think the only hook to your story or novel is the first line, then boy do I have some news for you.
Storyville: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Scene Breaks
Some tips on inserting scene breaks into your short stories.
Storyville: 15 Unconventional Story Methods
Here are 15 unconventional methods of telling a story. Why not stretch yourself?
Storyville: Ten Ways to Avoid Cliches and Stereotypes
Ten tips to avoid clichés and stereotypes in your fiction.
Storyville: Endings, Twisted and Otherwise
A beginning, a middle, and an end. Let's talk about the end. Make it resonate.
Storyville: Writing Horror Stories
What does it take to write a terrifying story? Every tool in your writer's toolbelt.
Talking Shapes: The Rebel, the Follower, and the Witness
Take a look at your work. Are you writing a classic rebel-follower-witness story? If not, what kind of myth are you creating? This essay takes up the mythic patterns prominent in our culture and provides great examples.
Killing Time: Part One
In:
Structure
Several methods exist in fiction for showing the passage of time--from subtle to not-so-subtle. Here, Chuck glosses various approaches while highlighting his preferred method.
Required Reading -- Absurdity
In:
Structure
In this essay, Chuck explores authority, specificity, pacing, and brevity as points of power in two classic shorts--one from E.B. White and one from Shirley Jackson. You'll be challenged to carry these principles into your own experiments.
A Story from Scratch, Act Three
In Act Three, Chuck demonstrates the importance of keeping established elements present to the story as it moves forward. He also brings in the "Buried Gun" and reveals strategies for building tension and maintaining character arc.
![Pure Poe POV with "Ghost Eaters" author Clay McLeod Chapman](https://litreactor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/class-small-promo/images/store/clay_mcleod_chapman_-_pure_poe_pov_jun_15.jpg "Pure Poe POV with "Ghost Eaters" author Clay McLeod Chapman")
