by Mark Cheverton | May 4, 2018 | Writing Tips
Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. The above paragraph is referred to as Pixar’s Rule #4. A Pixar storyboard artist, Emma Coats, @lawnrocket, compiled a list story wisdom she... 
by Mark Cheverton | Apr 30, 2018 | Writing Tips
I’ve been working on my next book, called The Giant’s Giant, and I’ve had a lot of trouble getting it going. For some reason, I start writing a couple of chapters, then get stuck and don’t know where the story is going. I start over, and again I’ve gotten stuck. It’s... 
by Mark Cheverton | Mar 8, 2018 | Writing Tips
As those of you who read my Minecraft-inspired novels know, battle scenes are a big part of my stories. In my earlier books, I really didn’t understand the purpose of the battle, other than to raise tension, but over the years, I’ve realized that... 
by Mark Cheverton | Mar 5, 2018 | Writing Tips
Hi everyone. I wanted to talk with you about something I’ve slowly been learning and getting better at, I think, as I write more books, and that’s sentence structure. When I go back and look at my very first books, all of which you can no longer... 
by Mark Cheverton | Feb 28, 2018 | Writing Tips
There’s a rule in writing, and of course, whenever I say there’s a rule, I’ll think of multiple ways of breaking it, but so far, I’ve never broken this rule, and it goes like this: Rule #10: If your hero needs a gun at the end of the... 
by Mark Cheverton | Feb 26, 2018 | Writing Tips
I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned when it comes to writing exciting and engaging dialogue. In some of my first novels, my dialogue was compared to a microwave burrito (not my best review, but one of my favorites). After receiving that rebuke, I... 