Every good story needs a complication. We learn this fiction-writing fundamental in courses and workshops, by reading a lot or, most painfully, through our own abandoned story drafts. After writing twenty pages about a harmonious family picnic, say, or a… — Monica Wood Copy Share Image
It's often hard to determine, especially in early drafts, whether or not a story has a bona fide complication. Remember this: A complication must either illuminate, thwart, or alter what the character wants. A good complication puts emotional pressure on… — Monica Wood Copy Share Image
“I have always loved books for their reassuring heft, for their promise of new words, for their air of mystery, for their characters who… — Monica Wood Copy Share
“The packet of fading photos gives it away if you know how to look: always a rundown porch landing and stair rails behind, always… — Monica Wood Copy Share
“Maybe he, like Mum, believed God had delivered three extra children, one-two-three, as a sign of His plan for this couple's long, long friendship.… — Monica Wood Copy Share
“But even talented people, sooner or later, cracked their heads against their own personal ceilings.” — Monica Wood Copy Share
Every good story needs a complication. We learn this fiction-writing fundamental in courses and workshops, by reading a lot or, most painfully, through our… — Monica Wood Copy Share
“I read with a kind of curious terror, learning that words can pin their readers to place, confer permanence on the ethereal, make the… — Monica Wood Copy Share
“In they went, over the footbridges to mills flourishing on Chisholm land. “To the Rumford Falls Paper Company, which made—?” “Newsprint!” “And the Rumford… — Monica Wood Copy Share
A well-chosen complication should give you choices. Juggling choices for your characters is what makes writing fun, after all. If you discover that you're… — Monica Wood Copy Share
It's often hard to determine, especially in early drafts, whether or not a story has a bona fide complication. Remember this: A complication must… — Monica Wood Copy Share
“The shape of our family has been upended and rearranged, its roof flattened, its gateposts ripped from the earth by God's own brutal hand,… — Monica Wood Copy Share
“A busload of pilgrims today on journeys they never chose, having once believed themselves born for more than this.” — Monica Wood Copy Share
