Improve Your Writing

Focus on the main story’s forward momentum, and use backstory as the seasoning that makes the stew.

Your audience won’t remember the chapter where your hero took a breather. What’s memorable are the forces of antagonism, and how your hero reacted.

Before spending time on a story that doesn’t work, ensure you’ve addressed the critical questions of character, plot, goals and motivations.

Like writing, editing and revision are skills that take time to learn, and they develop only with practice.

Here are four ways to help create the mindset that we can realistically accomplish something we’ve never tried before.

It might not be essential to impose a standard arc structure on a character who’s non-traditional or isn’t affected by the story’s actions.

We writers know that critiques are an integral part of improving our work. But we rarely learn how to receive feedback or what to do after.

Central to most of Michael Lewis’ works are larger-than-life characters who find themselves at the center of major industry or societal shifts.

When completing a readable draft left one author exhausted and overwhelmed, these three steps helped him start writing again.

Good editors are expensive, so the best time for a full manuscript review is when you’re pretty sure your book is ready for publication.

If your subject already has a large existing fandom, how can you quantify that audience, using the data to impress agents, publishers, and editors?

A prologue can open the door to your story and entice the reader in, or throw up a barrier that delays or prevents their engagement.

A great villain character should have complex motivations and be able to evoke sympathy from readers.

The writers who get their books into the world are those who find a middle ground between refining their work and endlessly tinkering.

Science says these three techniques can draw your readers in, keep them engaged, and provide them with a compelling experience.

You can mine the first paragraphs of well-written novels for four critical components that keep readers hooked.

What makes a good writer? Relentless internal drive, a thick skin for editorial feedback, and reading voraciously across many genres.

From appealing to short attention spans to offering no-fuss ways to play in another sandbox, short story writing has many benefits.

Writing a book with multiple authors requires trust, vulnerability and patience. But done right, group writing has some surprising benefits.

When we’re dealt life-altering circumstances, how do we stay true to creative ambitions while finding a whole new way of existing?

Your writing might soar to new heights when you make weather—and the words describing it—an important element in your characters’ lives.

Along with sex and death, money is a topic with evergreen appeal. So when you write about money, you put the odds of a breakout on your side.

Some writers struggle with ever getting one word of their Great Idea down on the page, for fear of crafting an imperfect beginning.

Some writers can finish a book all by themselves, but even more of them have support systems, deadlines, teachers, exercises, instructions and help.

To write something that connects on a universal level, concentrate on specifics. Small truths are easier for readers to identify with.