Happy Ghoulidays Book Covers by Author Shannon Lawrence

Shannon Lawrence Interview: the Easter Sunday Massacre

Horror author (and friend of mine!) Shannon Lawrence has a new collection of holiday-themed horror short stories available, Happy Ghoulidays II.  The first book in the series, Happy Ghoulidays, covered the winter holidays. Ghoulidays II covers the rest of the year, from St. Patrick’s Day to Halloween. Shannon and her partner in crime, M.B. Partlow, …

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French Onion Ramen

French Onion Ramen Experiment!

I woke up abruptly one morning out of a forgotten dream, the words “French onion ramen” lingering on my lips. Sounded like a great idea, so I went for it! My goal was to make not just “French onion soup with ramen noodles” but something that was more balanced between French and Japanese flavors. Elements …

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Writing Craft: Vol. 3: What is conflict?

What is the conflict? When a story starts introducing elements that directly affect the outcome of the story, that’s conflict. When characters fuss with small objects, make small talk, or think about backstory, that’s not conflict. The vital elements of character and setting are in place, and the “meat” of the story proceeds forward, leading …

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Process Post: Story Openings

Okay, so, weird thing about story openings: mostly, you won’t remember them. There are some famous story openings, but mostly what you’ll remember is the first scene with any real-time conflict in it. And that conflict won’t happen right away. Before the conflict comes the information needed to set up the rest of the story. …

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Writing Craft, Vol. 3: Story Openings

Story openings = setting + point of view There are many ways to open a story! In general, though, you don’t want to start with the conflict of the story. Until the reader is invested in the story somewhat, they really won’t care about the actual conflict. Start with setting and character: Give a setting …

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Writing Craft Vol. 3: Who’s telling the story?

We will talk more later about points of view in Writing Craft, Volume 4: Keeping the Reader Trapped In Your Story. But I do need to address a few points about creating point of view characters, because they are vital to how you write setting! You can’t write setting without a point of view character …

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