Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:
on Live Write Thrive: If you’re writing a story in which your character will need to evolve internally to achieve his goal, a cohesive and well-planned character arc will be vital to its success. This type of arc (a change arc) requires internal conflict, which…

Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:
on Just Publishing Advice: Positive writing always helps you communicate better with your readers. All it takes is a few simple grammar or vocabulary changes, and it’s such an easy habit to adopt. When we speak, we can use negative sentences with facial expressions that…

Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:
on Fiction University: One of science fiction’s strengths is showing future possibilities and what life might be like in them. There was a time wherein cellphones were getting steadily smaller, from the brick-sized majesty of the Motorola DynaTac (1983) to the Mobira Cityman (1987) to…

Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:
I was just writing the other day about the 1339 monk who wrote about the discovery of America. Now, analysis of wood from timber-framed buildings in the L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland shows a Norse-built settlement over 1,000 years ago – 471 years before Columbus. As the Guardian and…

Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:
on Fiction University: I recently completed an edit for a client, Cordia Pearson, whom I’d gently persuaded to let me introduce Oxford commas into her list phrases. The reasoning for this is that using the Oxford (aka serial) comma never does any harm, and can…

Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:
on Writer Unboxed: Self-promotion isn’t the most famous naughty s-word, but it can still feel like a bad word to today’s authors. I hate self-promotion, you might say. I’m so sick of talking about myself on social media.With more and more options to reach readers directly comes…