Tag Archives: Janice Dick

But Then Something Happened by Janice Dick

I was ready to pack it in! I had committed to putting out the third and final book in my current series, and then maybe I’d just quit. Live an ordinary life. Not have to keep learning new skills and trends to keep up my writing career. I had learned many things: — How to… Read more »

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The Power of the Spirit in Our Writing by Janice Dick

Do you ever wonder if the hours, days, weeks, and years you spend at your computer arranging words is making any difference whatsoever in the grand scheme of life? I do. Since 1989, I’ve spent much of my time writing fiction. A lot of people don’t understand what I do, or why, but I keep… Read more »

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Fiction Writing 101: Part 9 – Beguiling Beginnings – Janice L. Dick

Plato said, “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” Kimberly Yuhl suggests you have eight words to capture your reader’s attention. Rob Weatherhead states in the article, Say it Quick, Say it Well (please excuse the grammar), that the attention span of a modern internet consumer is short. “Studies have shown that… Read more »

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Fiction Writing 101: Part 8 — Janice Dick

In my Fiction Writing 101 series, I often refer to James Scott Bell and his writing books and tools, especially Plot & Structure. My copy is well-marked and highlighted. That’s where I first heard the differentiation between an OP and a NOP. OPs are Outline People, NOPs are Non-Outline People. The abbreviations are easy to… Read more »

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Fiction Writing 101:Part 7 — The Plot Thickens — Janice Dick

What is plot—besides a piece of ground used to bury dead people? (That’s from James Scott Bell in Plot & Structure.) In my mind, plot is the story itself, with a beginning, middle and end. Of course there are literary works that don’t follow any of the rules, not even as guidelines, but I’m thinking… Read more »

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Fiction Writing 101 – Part Six – Setting (or giving your character a leg to stand on) — Janice Dick

A smile formed on Callie’s face at the sight of Tom. It had been so long.  “Welcome by to the land of the living,” she said. “It’s good to be back. What have you been doing in my absence? I hope you managed to keep out of trouble.” “Of course, what do you think?” She… Read more »

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Dialogue — Janice Dick

“He said,” and then “she said,” and then “they said…” The preceding is a good way to lose our readers. How can we, as writers, make our dialogue exciting, compelling and unique to the characters?

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Creating Authentic Characters — Janice Dick

There are many methods for creating fictional characters. We’ll look at how to: create characters from our imaginations use people we know and alter them to be unrecognizable create conglomerates using characteristics from a number of people use actual people

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Genre in Fiction — Janice Dick

Before we begin talking about plot outlines, character development and setting, let’s discuss a little concept called genre. The word is pronounced john-ra or zhon-ra, and it simply means kind or variety. In our case, it refers to the kinds of stories we read and write.

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The Basic Elements of Fiction — Janice Dick

When I present a talk on novel writing, I often ask the audience for their input on the basic elements of fiction, and they come up with several immediately: plot, setting and character. Let’s begin with these. Plot, according to James Scott Bell in his excellent how-to book Plot & Structure, is: “1) a small… Read more »

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