by Foster | Writing Q & A
Setting is the background against which you tell your story. At its most basic, setting includes the place and time of your tale — the where and when. But to really nail setting and tap into its power to grip the reader and pull him into your world, you need to...
by Foster | Writing Q & A
Let me state right up front … YES, your first-person narrator can die. Your story is your story, after all, and you can make anything at all happen within the confines of those pages. That said, whether you should kill your first-person narrator is another...
by Foster | Writing Q & A
“Mary Sue” is a shallowly written character with few flaws. “She” can be either female or male, though the latter is often called “Gary Stu” or something similar. Mary Sue has her origins in fan fiction, but she has been identified...
by Foster | Writing Q & A
Writers tend to fall in love with our main characters, and for good reason — we spend weeks, months, or years with them, and they drive our plots forward. It’s not surprising, then, that our first instinct is to describe our protagonists’ physical...
by Foster | Writing Q & A
When the word gods bestowed upon a young Enheduanna the gift of cuneiform, they said unto her, “Thou shalt write for a minimum of three hours and produce at least 1253 words every day.” That’s why aspiring authors everywhere still use those numbers...
by Foster | Writing Q & A
One of the first questions you need to answer when starting your new novel is which point of view you plan to use. It’s a choice that could affect everything from your voice to your individual plot points, so you need to consider it carefully. Most of the time,...
