I talked about this in class on Patreon, and I also posted it there, for patrons, but this example today is illustrating it even better.

Crosstalk ideally is what all of your dialogue should be, with the true meaning hidden underneath the spoken words. See how two people talk about two unrelated things, yet they become related in our mind?

In the picture above is the extreme example of the crosstalk dialogue.

Some days I feel down and think, “This is taking forever, this whole getting-better-at-writing thing. And I’m still not quite making a living at it. How much more? How much longer? I’m so tired of working my ass off. What am I doing wrong? What can I do better?” And so on. You know the drill.

On days like these I find it most inspiring to read a biography of a writer who made it. Or watch a movie about them. 

Listening and hearing are not the same things.

You can listen to what your story is trying to tell you, and not hear it.

Every day, when you sit down to write, you’ll go on a rollercoaster of storytelling. Some days will be fantastic. Other days will be awful. Yet others will be dreary and dull.

And in all of those days will come a moment when you’ll stumble and know something is wrong. 

Our Patreon Hamster Christie asked a really good question. When you’re new to planning your novel instead of pantsing it, how do you even get yourself started on the planning path?

Simple. Start with the Villain.

This came up while talking to one of our Patreon Bears, Leslie.

Here is a 6-year-old blog post I wrote on the subject.

You have to give the reader the three main story components: Hero, Villain, Conflict.