Tag Archive: planning

Apr 10

Timing is everything

Comedy has long claimed the phrase ‘timing is everything’, but the same applies to almost every facet of a novel. Broad strokes of this rule come into play with things like timing a book launch to cash in on Father’s Day or Christmas gift buying seasons, but that’s PR department stuff. Timing is everything when …

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Permanent link to this article: http://novelgrind.com/novel-writing/timing/

Apr 04

Story versus Plot

I’m a big believer in plot, but often I read books that only have a story. Sometimes this is enough. For short stories, fables and even some films, all you need is a story that allows you to properly present an interesting character and let it blossom into something that people ‘click’ with. It doesn’t …

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Permanent link to this article: http://novelgrind.com/novel-writing/story-versus-plot/

Mar 26

Your hero is only as good as the villain is bad

Quite by accident, I stumbled upon yet another way to make the antagonist of my novel series even more of a bastard. This is important to me; that he is presented as the best type of villain – the cold and calculating, hands-on, go-getter type of alpha male. He’s self-righteous and completely convinced of his …

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Permanent link to this article: http://novelgrind.com/novel-writing/hero-good-villain-bad/