50. Sonder, and how it helps create amazing characters – Daily Writing Advice # 50

My upcoming fantasy novella, Fires of the Dead: https://jedherne.com/firesofthedead

Sonder: The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one’s own, which they are constantly living despite one’s personal lack of awareness of it.

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49. The Goodwill Hunting guide to making readers feel emotions – Daily Writing Advice # 49

Check out my debut fantasy novella! https://amzn.to/33yyvn7

Goodwill Hunting is one of the most emotionally resonant films I’ve seen. It has a way of getting under your skin and making viewers care. Today’s episode analyses how it achieves this, drawing upon theories from The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass.

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48 Backwards, you must work Daily Writing Advice # 48

Check out my debut fantasy novella! https://amzn.to/33yyvn7

Readers can only read forwards. Writers can cheat. Use this to your advantage, authors!

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47. The Name of the Wind guide to making small events have big stakes – Daily Writing Advice # 47

Check out my debut fantasy novella! https://amzn.to/33yyvn7
Podcast I did on The Name of the Wind: https://novelanalyst.com/2018/08/07/episode1/

Gabriel Bergmoser said that The Name of the Wind somehow makes a man playing an instrument more suspenseful than a man fighting a dragon. That’s not an insult. That’s a compliment, because Patrick Rothfuss’ incredible fantasy novel is a masterclass in making small stakes feel huge.

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46. Give characters scenic outlooks – Daily Writing Advice # 46

Check out my debut fantasy novella! https://amzn.to/33yyvn7

For readers to appreciate how far characters have come, you need to show how far they’ve gone. This episode describes how.

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45. The emotional craft of fiction by Donald Maass – plot vs emotional goals – Daily Writing Advice

Check out my debut fantasy novella! https://amzn.to/33yyvn7

In The Emotional Craft of Fiction, a wonderful writing advice book, legendary literary agent Donald Maass outlines how writers can make readers feel emotion. As he says: “readers can read a novel, or they can experience it.” One technique to achieve this emotional engagement is to consider plot vs. emotional goals. Having both is the key to empathy. In today’s episode, we’ll examine how Toy Story achieves this.

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44. Using Gary Chapman’s 5 love languages to write better characters – Daily Writing Advice # 44

Check out my debut fantasy novella! https://amzn.to/33yyvn7

According to Gary Chapman’s book, The Five Love Languages, we each have unique ways of showing and giving appreciation. These are:

1 – Quality Time

2 – Words of Affirmation

3 – Touch

4 – Gifts

5 – Acts of Service

As an author, you can use these love languages to create more complex, interesting, and realistic characters.

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43. Overcoming procrastination as a writer – Daily Writing Advice # 43

Check out my debut fantasy novella! https://amzn.to/33yyvn7

While I don’t believe in writer’s block, I do believe that procrastination exists. However, I don’t want it to exist, so in this episode I’ll outline a four-step approach to diagnose and solve the enemy of productivity. This four-step approach has the handy acronym of DUST.

We procrastinate because things are:

D – Difficult
U – Undefined
S – Scary
T – Tedious

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42 The 4 Cs of great stories – Daily Writing Advice # 42

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41 What would your character never do? (Brent Weeks’ advice) – Daily Writing Advice # 4

Big spoiler warning for the Lightbringer series! Approach with caution.

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