Improve Your Writing

The most useful work is that which tests our limits and forces us to write something we didn’t realize we were capable of producing.

If you write knowing how the story will end, you’ll deprive readers of the tension that comes from putting obstacles in your characters’ way.

Paying attention to your own visceral reactions and thoughts can help you create richly developed characters who leap off the page.

Showing the moments of normalcy brings the reader more fully into your life, and heightens the drama when traumatic events occur.

True forgiveness can take years to achieve. That’s why memoirs take longer to write than novels. But it’s worth the effort.

In writing memoir, internal voices—with competing interests—can emerge to inform the narrative. A rounded story is careful to balance them all.

One author struggles to prioritize between major writing projects when time and energy are limited.

When placed intentionally, crafted well, and set up via emotional context and backstory, scene might be the writer’s most powerful tool.

Without insight into how your characters will react in even the most mundane of circumstances, you aren’t ready to plan or pants your plot.

Mentorship programs are a popular way to gain knowledge and exposure, but as their popularity has risen the competition has gotten tougher.

Given that many of us sidestep endings in real life, it should not be surprising that writers have trouble concluding book projects.

Factual details can be great fuel for your writing, but it’s crucial to recognize when adherence to them is getting in the way of the story.

Misguided feedback, which can damage your manuscript, often arises from a common mistake: asking the right question of the wrong person.

Despite our best efforts, artistic jealousy affects us all at times. But how we perceive another’s success is never the whole picture.

Mom writers are wired to succeed at writing (and querying) because they can multitask like no other.

Deep third pulls readers into a character’s world view, but pronoun ambiguities and apparent point-of-view shifts push readers away. These 6 tips keep prose sharp.

Finding the right editor or critique partner is important, but so is being mentally prepared for the feedback you’ll receive.

Just as we might be conflict averse, it can be tempting to keep revising a story’s beginning instead of proceeding into the messy middle.

There’s a good chance that getting these essential elements right are among the biggest challenges you’ll face with your novel.

Like story arcs, individual scenes also have shapes. Understanding yours can help you improve the ones that are falling flat.

The key to an author’s emotional wellbeing and continued productivity is creating a support system, and knowing which part to call on when.

The idea of universal story archetypes is not a new one—but its corroboration by an A.I. brings a new dimension to the debate.

There’s only one thing that any novel must do if it’s going to succeed, and that’s arouse the reader’s curiosity.

Third-person POV dominates the current publishing market, so it’s helpful to learn to navigate its many facets.

Your calendar will never be suddenly free of urgent distractions. To finish that book on the back burner, you must actively bring it forward.

New authors are often confused about what level of editing they need. Here’s some insight into the differences.

When facing decisions in your writing, it helps to identify which questions have lower stakes and which ones are preventing real progress.

There’s nothing wrong with using multiple narrators in a first-person story, but it requires some serious background work.

One editor’s technique to add narrative tension, deepen characterization, and force you to think past the original boundaries of a premise.

When you’ve completed a draft but it’s falling a bit flat, it’s time for the Story Draft: creative work done technically.

As an author, it’s good to be a big fish in a small pond—but you’ll benefit even more if your pond is connected to a larger system.

Use of a big word can be beautiful, as long as it meets two criteria: it must be the right word and the best word.

Emotional truth is the lens that allows us to see ourselves in a story, resulting in a heartfelt connection in a fictional narrative.

If your middle’s lost momentum, check to see if your plot, characters, stakes and suspense consistently propel readers along the story arc.

Publication is elusive and in many ways out of your hands, but feeling seen is something that writers can offer each other right now.

Let go of description, extra words, and clever exposition. What’s left is a tightly crafted nugget of concentrated gold—flash fiction.

Authoring a memoir, the gift of hindsight allows you to invest moments with deeper meaning than they may have had at the time.

From Franz Kafka to Bob Dylan, history shows that letter writing can be a portal to discovery that benefits a wide variety of projects.

Like pruning the extra sprouts out of a garden, sharper and tighter prose makes the details you keep stand out.

The field is saturated, so many people wanting to tell their interesting stories. You wonder: Am I a good enough writer to keep doing this?

A daily practice can only succeed if we're 100% honest about our doubts and weaknesses, because one area of denial can scuttle the ship.

Writing can be a lonely process, and it’s easy to feel stuck. Editors and coaches can help identify the common problems—and their solutions.

Experienced editors look for a story so engrossing the reader forgets that he’s reading—story in which the author’s voice seems not to exist.

Writing memoir won’t fix what’s wrong. But writing what you know will give you the kind of insight that begets a better sense of control in uncertain times.

Whether grappling with believable world-building or adherence to historical accuracy, these six tips will help you navigate this daunting genre.

Why sweat the commas? To save your reader from working to decode syntax-level meaning, enabling full focus on your protagonist, your plot, and your prose.

In this Q&A, agents Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel and Leslie Zampetti tackle the complications of authorship and literary citizenship in the pandemic age.

If the idea of facing a blank page gives you the sudden urge to do chores, the problem might be that you’re trying to write in a way that doesn’t suit you.

Writing about the people you are closest to can be one of the most rewarding experiences a writer can have—but also the scariest.

Unless a metaphor spontaneously suggests itself from your creative, subconscious mind, it’s probably forced and phony-sounding—and far from “literary”.