2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love

Every character in a book, even the most minor, needs a motivation. They have to want something. This is where agency comes from, because characters who want things are the ones who push the story to get them.

The point I’m trying to make here is that when you let your characters make their own choices, they become real people who can tell you where they need to go. By making your character’s decisions and needs part of your plot right from the beginning, treating them as active participants in the novel rather than passengers on a rollercoaster to the c

Name: Age: Physical Description: I like: I hate: More than anything, I want:

Specifically, I ask that my scenes do three things: Advance the story Reveal new information Pull the reader forward

characters with proper agency will write their own stories. And they will do it faster, better, and more naturally than you ever could.

Ch 1 (7452) D gets Caldswell tip from Anthony D goes to starport, checks the tip, sees the Fool D has her interview, impressive, gets the job Basil takes D on the tour, we meet R, job is laid out

The point of the scene map is to be a guide, a literal scene-by-scene map of what happens in your book.

Everything. Remember, the core part of the writing triangle is knowledge. In day-to-day terms, this means knowing what you’re going to write before you write it, but in the bigger picture of your life as a writer, it means understanding your story choices on a deeper level. If you want your writing process to be fast and reliable, it’s not enough t

just asking “What else can I do here?” every time you look at a scene will keep your mind open to myriad, often wonderful, possibilities.