Rhay Christou loves her dogs—Fredo and MoJoe—her teaching and writing. Making her home in a small village in Cyprus, when she is not wandering the National Park's trails, she uses her MFA in writing from Vermont College to share her knowledge and experience to cheerlead writers in creating their best stories. Since graduating, she has taught everything from creative writing to academic writing at the university level and writing workshops on the lovely island of Cyprus, in Greece and the USA.
Depending on who you ask, there are 2, 4, 7, 9 or 13 different plots for a writer to use. Regardless of who you believe, with a finite number of plots, you'd better find a way to make your story stand out among the masses. And there is no better way to draw your readers […]
You know the theory, read the books, have taken the classes, but still get critique groups/partners, agents, or editors saying: “Something’s off.” “The chapter doesn’t work.” “The scenes don’t come alive” “The conflict is bland.” “The story is too small.” And you thunk! Your head your heart, all your hard work. Heck, you’ve poured your […]
Your words shine and each line glisten. But you’re still getting rejections! Pantsers and plotters, at some point you’re going to have to step back from the words, the lines, and even the paragraphs, and look at the big picture issues. Diving deep into developmental edits is an intense fourteen lecture course for those writers […]
Conflict. Conflict. Conflict. We’ve heard it, we know it, we’ve gotta have it, but too often, agents, editors, critique partners, and editors scream, “Where is the conflict? We need to feel the tension” And worse. “There is no conflict in this story.” Even now, I hear heads thunking. I hear the cries of, “Why?” and […]
Conflict. Conflict. Conflict. Conflict, conflict, conflict builds tension. We've heard the tension-refrain at conferences, in workshops and in books. We know we must have tension. Tension on every page. So, we wrote stories filled with murders, thefts, lost hope, arguments, sword fights, gun battles, chase scenes. You name it, we threw all kinds of conflict […]
The stakes have never been higher. With the Internet, Netflix, HBO, Prime, movies, news, everything at reader’s fingertips, who cares has never been more important. Sure, you have put your heart, soul, and every drop of blood into your characters and the story they have to tell. You have created a compelling plot where characters […]
Let’s Go Deep!! TV, Movies, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, so much information right when we want it, no wonder authors, agents, editors, and readers want the same immediacy from stories. No wonder readers crave Deep Point-of-View. And I mean deep!! No longer willing to sit back, relax, wade through pages of prose and wandering […]
You’ve got your plot. You know your characters. You’ve filled your stories with goals and obstacles and conflicts, and oh boy, are the stakes running high. You’ve written a book that will surely jump off the shelves. BUT No matter how much you love your story, characters, and world, surprisingly, not everyone always feels the […]
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