Do you ever feel like your writing is a bit shallow in places? Whether you feel it's deficient in character, plot, worldbuilding, theme, or even for non-fiction where you feel the argument is lacking, today I'm going to talk a little bit about a technique I use sometimes to help deepen my writing.
You'll probably feel like it's pretty obvious once I say it, so here goes: Ask questions.
The Water Margin Story, a famous Chinese novel that goes by several different names here in the West, is so freakin' crazy.
Redrafting is obviously a big deal. You can add and polish enough in the later stages that you can turn a relatively weak story into something really great.
This video is from a few months ago when I was in the later stages of editing my novel, Pursuit of the Heliotrope. I found a couple of significant mistakes and managed to improve the flow of those chapters quite a bit.
Just me reading one of my short stories. This one is More Money than Brains, a story about Aric, Bill, and Lew on a little job with a real jerk of an employer. I tried to be funny but ended up being mostly sarcastic. Still, I think the story has a few good moments.
This might be helpful to other writers! I do a video tutorial, producing a paperback version of my first novella!
