You are hereOctober 2009
October 2009
#4: Beta Reading
Okay, you have gotten your story as far as you can take it. Now it's time to let someone else read it. If you're a lucky writer, you already have a great beta reader partner (yes it is a partnership to make the story the best it can be), but most of us have to have replacements or backups or multiple betas for every story. Or maybe this is your first time beta reading for someone and you're in a panic on where to start. We're going to start with a few guidelines for both the author and the beta reader.
FOR THE AUTHOR
#4: Characters: Introduction
By now you should have brainstormed enough to realize who is in your cast of characters for this story. Characters are the most important aspect of a story. Everything else hinges upon the people inside. "Character is the destiny of the novel," is how Donna Levin puts it (Get That Novel Written! 5) and it applies to short stories too. Characters influence the plot, and the actions and conflicts show off the characters. And if you don't write about interesting characters, no one is going to read.
#3: Writer’s Block
I'VE CAUGHT WRITER'S BLOCK
#3: Complex Sentence Patterns
There are three different ways to classify sentences: 1) by pattern, 2) by intention, and 3) by the number and types of clauses used. In the last tutorial, we covered the first four sentence patterns:
- Subject - Verb
- Subject - Verb - Object
- Subject - Link Verb - Complement
- Subject - Compound Predicate
