Advice — noah lukeman

In the previous issue, we examined interdependent journeys, obstacles and destiny, and how all of these might affect the journey and the characters in your work. In this, the final installment, we'll take it one step further, and see if we can't explore the very boundaries of the journey. This means considering a journey that leads to a journey, a character that doesn't journey at all, and the very purpose for the journey itself. Why do readers need journeys after all? The Journey that Leads to a Journey The problem with resolving a journey is that the reader feels he...

I would never write about someone who is not at the end of his rope. --Stanley Elkin Many writers mistake the outer life of a character for the inner life, assume that by offering a physical description and a few surface details, they have created a character. In actuality, the creating is just beginning. In real life it might suffice to know very little about someone else. Take, for instance, a company. A company can only ask a potential employee so much--if they probe into his sexual preferences or religious beliefs, they could get sued. If they probe deeper, into...

'The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you leave it to him.' --Graham Greene Plot does not magically appear with the creation of a character; Frankenstein's monster might open his eyes, but until he gets up from the table and DOES something, there is little basis for a plot. Plot comes with your characters taking action; with their interaction with others; with their traits being applied to imagined scenarios. A few issues to consider: PERCEPTION AND REACTION Two men stand in line at a bank at 2:50PM....

In last month's excerpt from my book, A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation, we discussed a few of the dangers of underuse of the period, as well as the role that context plays in punctuation. In this, the final installment, we'll continue examining the pivotal role of context, and take a look at what your usage of the period might reveal about you. In the hands of a master like Shakespeare, the context of period placement and sentence length takes on layers of meanings--indeed, is taken to a whole new level. Let's look, for instance, at...

In last week's installment of my book, A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation, we began to discuss ways that quotation marks might be misused. In this final installment, we'll examine this issue in depth, and also look at the power of quotation marks when used in context with other punctuation. In some trendy works (and classic works, too) you'll find that authors opt not to use quotation marks at all, but rather to indicate dialogue with some other mark, such as a dash, or italics, or no mark at all (not to be confused with paraphrasing)....