For many years I wrote about fiction, story, belief, ordinary life, and the questions that shaped my work. More than two thousand essays remain here—not because every one represents my current thinking, but because together they tell the story of a writer learning over time.
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The archive begins with the most recent writing. Use the numbered pages below to move backward through time.
Writing is messy work
I’m trying something different. This week I started drafting a new novel. Using pen and paper (reminder: buy a box of #2 pencils). This comes close to literalizing…
Finally, we are at the end of our series where I’ve attempted to provide a thumbnail description of each component of the Three-Act Structure. Let’s look at the…
The protagonist of our story must be someone our readers cheer on and support. One way novel writers can accomplish this is by giving the hero a worthy…
Today, I’ll continue outlining and describing the three act story structure. Next up is the climax. Naturally, this takes place in Act III, towards the very end. It’s…
You now have a picture of your protagonist. You’ve given him a SMART goal. Now, it’s time to think about your chief antagonist. What is an antagonist? It’s…
This structural event comes at the end of Act II. During the first seventy-five percent of our story, nothing is as bad for our protagonist. The third plot…
Every good novel has at least one protagonist, and every protagonist has a goal. Use H.R. D’Costa’s (Aka HRD) SMART technique to make sure your protagonist’s story objective…
Richard L. Fricks 