Improve Your Writing
The 3 Ms of Character Setup
For first impressions to occur as quickly on the page as in person, try this basic foundation to help readers achieve familiarity with your characters.
Developing a Writing Practice, Part 5: Neurohacks
In some ways, the idea behind neurohacks is simple: Fake it till you make it. Or, fake it until it feels real, because your brain can’t tell the difference.
The Puzzle-Piece Plotting Method: Using What You Know to Build What You Don’t
For some, the most intimidating part of writing a novel is the plotting. Here’s one way: Puzzle-Piece the story together from details you already know.
Developing a Writing Practice, Part 4: Easy
Many dream of publishing a book, but actually sitting down to write one seems hard. Preparation and limiting your choices can make writing feel easier.
The Easy-to-Fix Tense Problem That Might Be Tripping Up Your Readers
Past perfect is less common in the internet era, but isn’t just a formality. Without it, readers are ever so slightly more adrift in your ocean of words.
Developing a Writing Practice, Part 3: Important
A lot of the people who genuinely want to write a book never do so, because they never find a reason to prioritize their writing practice.
Instead of Setting a Goal, Try a Writing Dare
Too much free time can actually hinder momentum. That’s why it can be useful to focus on small challenges, always aiming just beyond your comfort level.
Developing a Writing Practice, Part 2: Community
Don’t feel like you have to go it alone—others are on the same journey, ready to offer encouragement and applaud your hard-earned victories.
Writing from the Bottom Rung: How to Sustain Your Creativity During a Pandemic
In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the top rung is where creativity happens—after our sustenance and security are met. Many of us are just not there, yet.
Developing a Writing Practice, Part 1: Stepladders
Studies show that making meaningful progress toward big goals is best served by focusing on the small steps that will get us there.
Peer Critique Versus Professional Editing: When, Why and How to Use Both
Developmental editors, critique partners, sensitivity readers, friends—feedback comes from different people, for different reasons, at different times.
Writing Unlikeable Characters Readers Will Root For
You can get your readers behind a character they don’t want to grab a beer with—if you allow enough humanity to show through.
4 Reasons to Spend Time with “Bad” Books
We’re often told to read the best books first and apply their lessons to our own work. Here’s a wrinkle: Books you don’t like can be great teachers too.
5 Mistakes When Writing Flashbacks in Memoir (and Fiction)
When used properly, flashbacks can be illuminating. When used haphazardly, they detract from the narrative and leave the reader confused (or worse, bored).
A Good Memoir Is an Act of Service
The human condition in its alienation, pain, and joy yearns for a faithful scribe. Memoir offers readers that ultimate safe harbor: the knowledge that they are not alone.
When Revising Your Novel, Look for These 4 Problem Areas
Is your reader being told a story, or experiencing it by your protagonist's side? When revising your novel, here are four important red flags to look for.
What Your Choice of Dialogue Tags Says About You
In conversation we describe dialogue simply—"She said," "He asked"—but writing enables a broader palette. How do we decide which words to use, or not use?
The Exclamation Point: It’s More Than Punctuation
It may be on the wane for reasons ranging from linguistic evolution to feminism, but one writer says exclamation point usage is a simple kindness.
The Joys (and Perils) of Serial Novel Writing
Like trying to outrun a semi bearing down in your rear-view mirror, writing serially for release in real-time can be both exhilarating and exhausting.
For Writers, Silence Might Not Be Golden After All
Research shows that most people reach peak cognitive performance under moderately noisy conditions—roughly the sound of a coffee shop on a busy day.
7 Non-Literary Ways for Writers to Get into the Flow
At times when reading seems like a chore and writing every day is like squeezing blood from a stone, try nurturing your creativity in different ways.
Loss: The Exact Reason to Read and Write
Loss can make fiction feel like an obnoxious waste of time. And maybe it is. But what if all of this loss is the exact reason to read? To write?
3 Critical Things You Won’t Learn in an MFA Program
Writing takes grit and so does publishing, but your odds are better if you understand what you’re up against. In this guest post, author and educator Susan DeFreitas shares some “secrets” everyone should know.
How to Build a Compelling Narrative Arc for Your Memoir
There’s a big difference between writing a book for ourselves and writing one for the reader. In this guest post, nonfiction coach and memoirist Tanja Pajevic offers five steps to keep in mind when crafting your story.
How to Get Out of the Writing Doldrums
When stuck in the doldrums, writing coach Mathina Calliope recommends "writer candy"—literary distractions that nourish the muse.
The Big Memoir Pitfall to Avoid
Perspective—gained from time and distance—can make the difference between an airing of grievances and a memoir that expresses deeper, universal truths.
Masterful Wordsmithing with Metaphor and Imagery
Taking the time to add the skills of creative imagery to your writer's toolbox will help you become a master of the emotional craft.
Context: When a Story Demands More Than Plot
Sometimes a story demands more than just a plot. You may want to create a context, a descriptive background that sheds light on a story's meaning.
Trying to Make Your Story “Unique”? Beware of These Common Pitfalls
Writers always seek to produce a unique story—but this can lead to creating a character or story that is “different” sheerly for the sake of, well, being different.
Better Your Writing By Being a Beginner—Every Day
You've probably heard writing advice such as “Ass in chair” and “Write every day.” While the advice has its limitations, there's a good reason it's mentioned so often.
5 Ways to Ensure Readers Don’t Abandon Your Book
You need readers to love your novel—and finish it. Author H.R. D’Costa explains how story stakes can help you grow readership and sales.
Writer’s Block Is a Gift. Here’s Why.
You're intimately familiar with the nature of your writer's block, right? In this guest post, creativity coach and author Julia Roberts pinpoints specific tools, and how they helped her, to clarify and solve the real issue.
4 Elements of Narrative That Anyone Can Learn
Narrative is a form that can be learned, like a dance move or a golf swing. Alan Gelb breaks down narrative into four elements: The Once, The Ordinary vs. the Extraordinary, Conflict and Tension, and The Point.
Considering Your Reader Is Not Coddling Them
Which approach is right? Write only for yourself and in service of your vision OR write with an intended readership in mind.
How to Bring Value to Your Readers
Value is subjective, but readers like all consumers seek it. In this guest post, author Paulette Perhach explains how writers whose work earns income match their own sense of value to what their readers value.
Knowing When to Fly: Leaving Your Critique Group
In working on your craft, it's one thing to find the right critique group. It's quite another to know when to fly. Writer and librarian Lisa Bubert shares her experience, outlines her formula, and offers tips on leaving the nest.
The Myth of the Natural Writer
There's a legendary joke about the writing life, often attributed to Margaret Atwood. It goes like this: A brain surgeon and a writer meet at a party.
When You’re Just Not Ready for Rejection
Rejection is painful, and there's no avoiding it as a writer. But you don't have to submit before you're ready to deal with it. Writer and blogger Shana Scott offers some perspective on the conventional "publish or perish" advice.
8 Mundane Elements You Should Cut From Your Story
Realism has its role, but don't let it bog down your novel. The right balance of brevity, helpful details, and smooth flow preserves the story's dramatic tension and keeps the pages turning. In this guest post, bestselling author Jordan Rosenfeld outlines the pitfalls that can bore your reader, and how to avoid them.
Writing for Audio: Understanding Attunement
Successful writing for audio formats requires awareness of how a listener's needs differ from a reader's. In this guest post, playwright and fiction writer Jules Horne describes and illustrates key ways a writer can achieve listener attunement to the story.
Beta Readers: Who, When, Why, and So What?
Use of beta readers is widespread, but surprisingly little has been written about how writers actually use them and how they help—or if they do.
When Words Are What You Love Most of All
The writers who visit you in class, when you're still a student—especially if you're young and impressionable—these writers stick with you for a lifetime.
The Myth of Plan First and Write Later
You don’t have to choose between planning and "simply writing." Do both, at different times, all the way through the novel writing process.
Voice Is How You Dance on the Page
Voice: It's either there in the writing or it's not. And some writers haven't developed or "found" their voice yet.
The Inner Struggle: How to Show a Character’s Repressed Emotions
If a character is repressing an emotion, real-world behaviors can show it. Readers will catch on because they’ll recognize their own attempts to hide their feelings.
The Tricky Issue of POV in Memoir
While it’s possible to write memoir from your own authorial POV (because you know more today than you did then), the most engaging memoirs are ones in which the author sticks to their POV at the moment of events.
Feeling Envious of Other Writers? Here’s a Solution.
Writer Anthony Doerr once told me something his father told him, and I'll paraphrase it poorly here: You're going to get your neck sunburned looking up all the time.
Questions to Consider When Plotting a Scene
Before writing a scene, determine what type of scene it’s going to be. Will it be a narrative scene? High-action scene? Low-energy dialogue scene?
Story Planning Books: 3 Approaches to Consider
Plot and structure books aren’t necessarily calling for adherence to a formula—in fact, they warn against it. Here are 3 story planning methods to consider.
Feeling Stuck? Focus on a Single Sentence
Focusing on the smallest thing you can accomplish: this is the magic trick to making progress or getting unstuck.