Improve Your Writing

In a great story, character and plot are inextricable from one another. The seeds of the story conflict lie in the character.

Here's a word I have eliminated as fully as possible from my information and advice lexicon for writers: passion.

If there's something at the heart of the story that still interests you, that keeps pulling you back, that still haunts you years later, then that's probably a sign that there's something worth struggling for there.

Every writer’s pet fear stems from the mother of all fears: What other people think of what I write is more important than what I think of what I write.

If you recognize the following characteristics in the critiques of your work, it may not just be inept—it may, in fact, be toxic.

Turns out there is only one universal rule of plot, and it goes back to what Joseph Campbell uncovered: every single story worth telling is about transformation via trials.

Writer Katherine Vaz discusses an assignment that is given to every student at her university: to write about "the most important thing ever to happen to me."

Half of writers are plotters, and the other half are pantsers. One is not the right way or the wrong way; there is only the way that works best for you.

How do great authors develop stunning narratives, break from tradition, and advance the form of their fiction? They take whatever basic ideas they’ve got, then move them away from the typical.

Learn the difference between all ready/already, altogether/all together, all right/alright, any time/anytime, anyway/any way.

By far the most common entry-level mistake in the writing game, the thing that can get a perfectly good story rejected by an editor on the first page, is overwriting.

No pressure, but the opening of your book is the gatekeeper in determining whether your novel will sell. If your opening is weak, it won’t matter if chapter two is a masterpiece. Editors and agents and booksellers and librarians and readers will stop reading before they get there.

We order; we catalogue. It is, simply, what the human mind excels at.

You need to write a memoir—except the mere thought floods you with anxiety. You’ve got decades of memories; where would you even start? Lists to the rescue!

If fiction writing is something you’d like to pursue in your retirement years, follow these steps to help you prepare for the business of authorship.

For new writers, throwing in a few combat scenes can seem like an easy way to add some excitement to a novel, but the reality is that violence can be incredibly difficult to pull off effectively.

Taste is not static. Rather than a fixed endpoint toward which one toils away, it's a target that moves over the course of a lifetime.

All three paths to producing emotional responses in readers are valid, but all three have pitfalls and can fail to work. To successfully use each, it’s necessary to understand why each is effective when it is.

In this post I regularly update the best resources I know of related to learning to publish an ebook, finding the right distributors and services, and staying on top of changes in the industry.

Sometimes that first draft is never going to become a final draft. That doesn't mean it's a waste, though.

Any accomplished writer is also a reader—and usually a reader first. For the writer who is the least a bit

There are advantages to selling ebooks only through Amazon, and makes most sense for authors who are just starting out or who are relatively unknown.

Sometimes endings are designed to satisfy, answering the questions posed along the way. Endings that allow you to leave as easily as you came in. But what if the ending isn't designed to satisfy?

Productivity is certainly one goal of a retreat. But there are other desired outcomes, such as returning home rested, relaxed, and energized by the time away.

Learn about four tensions you may experience that have the potential to undermine your creative work and leave you feeling stuck.

There is one secret ingredient to crafting a novel that readers will read from beginning to end. All the other elements are important and necessary, but they play supporting roles to this one.

Why must writers schedule time for residencies and retreats? Because in doing so, we honor an annual appointment with writer self-care.

It's sometimes easier to cut a piece of writing if you can't see how to fix it. Just remove the offending bits, job done. But it can deaden a piece.

There are many analogies drawn between writing and sports: exercising your creative muscles, learning to go the distance, pushing up against your limits.

Every reader starts a story cold, and you want to warm the reader up to your story as quickly as possible. Learn proven techniques for story openings.

A round-up of the best and most popular advice on writing craft and technique I've featured since 2010.

Ultimately, concept is far less important than character when it comes to determining the overall quality of your story, but your audience is attracted to your story based on your concept alone. Does your concept have what it takes to draw people in?

Before you buy another pen-and-pencil set for that writer in your life, consider some gift options that take their digital lives into consideration.

Some stories require greater scope, more voices, or a different context than can be delivered through the eyes of one protagonist. When you find this to be the case, consider using multiple viewpoints. However, you must think about several factors before launching into this greater undertaking.

The most successful people in every industry use goals as road maps to help them reach their desired destination. It’s no different for writers.

Author Kurt Rheinheimer discusses how the most precious vein for material is from just before he knew who he was and what was going on.

If I could teach only one key to great writing, it would be this: Make every word count. Recognize the power of a single, well-chosen word. Trust it to do its work. As a rule, the more economically you use language, the more powerfully you will deliver your message.

There are countless ways to defeat ourselves, but the biggest and worst is to make the task too big and then feel daunted before we ever start

Watch my 30-minute talk on how to bring together the art and business sides of your career in a way that doesn't feel like a bad marriage.

Every action in your novel should be justified by the intersection of setting, context, pursuit, and characterization. They all need to make sense. They all need to fit. If you have to explain why something just happened, you’re telling the story backward.

Author Melissa Yancy shines a new light on what failure brings to the writing life—and it isn't the usual reflection on rejection.

When writers talk about where their ideas come from, the answers are as varied as wildflowers

The way we write can define (and transform) the way we live. Author Sage Cohen believes ferocity is our best compass for finding our true way forward.

You can find depths of meaning in the shared language and goals you've developed with the writers around you.

Why are we so curious about authors' own lives in relation to their books, and the ways that they do (or don't) bring their own stories into their work? Why do we wonder what's "true"?

Before you can take someone else's advice, you have to develop a realistic picture of who you are, what your tendencies are, and what you’re willing and able to change.

Author and editor Jessica Strawser offers guidance on how to write through illness, grief, and other major life events.

Author Jennifer Louden offers five tips for developing and strengthening your writer's voice.

The greatest tool for gaining reader confidence is internal dialogue—because when a character reveals his thoughts, he’s confiding in the audience.

Author and writing expert Barbara Baig discusses the lessons about deliberate practice that writers might take away from Anders Ericsson's book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.