Improve Your Writing

Twists feel “twisty” because the author has carefully engineered the story to mislead readers via the protagonist’s journey and assumptions.

One way to cultivate a loyal audience is by sharing compelling content, but it’s important to understand the needs of your target audience.

A new book, The Grim Reader, helps authors understand how to write convincingly about drugs and their use.

By paying attention to how you are impacted by story, you can learn to trace those effects back to the techniques that elicited them.

A good novel has everything teen brains are primed to crave—excitement, emotion, and escape.

For a memorable story, give your main character a strong motive, a flaw, and a series of escalating decisions leading to an impossible choice.

Going too fast is one of the biggest mistakes storytellers make. When you arrive at a moment readers have been waiting for, slow things down.

It takes practice to write immersive descriptions that draw readers in, without going overboard and risking boredom or loss of attention.

An author considers how we often try to turn ourselves into other kinds of writers instead of following our internal compass.

Shonda Rhimes’s Netflix series is a master class in amping up stakes and keeping viewers invested in the characters’ outcomes.

Too many books and not enough time? One author learns that speed-reading print and audiobook versions simultaneously can enhance retention.

In marketing, “proof of concept” means testing an idea for sales potential before going all-in. Here’s how to apply that to your book.

As with abstract painting, fiction can find worth in technique rather than specific meaning—emphasizing not the What, but the How.

When author and readers have little in common, what makes writing relatable? A teacher examines Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird to find out.

To create unforgettable scenes, purposefully choose settings that trigger character emotions, intensify conflicts, or evoke specific moods.

To be vivid on the page, each character you write should display life-long emotional responses to wounds that occurred in their past.

Flashback can be a potent tool for presenting essential backstory, as long as you apply it without interrupting the story’s forward momentum.

One author shares what she’s learned about using voice dictation to write in any setting: on a walk, washing the dishes, even lying in bed.

An experienced author of advanced age considers the value of tackling a memoir with resonant themes but a challenging road to publication.

Identifying and bolstering your story’s theme can develop a layered narrative that resonates with readers on conscious and subconscious levels.

To make readers care, you generally need to get three things on your novel’s opening pages before the inciting incident arrives.

This author didn’t think of herself as a humor writer until her readers told her otherwise, so she dug into what makes her work funny.

Many people argue using bad-faith tactics. Much more difficult is to engage the best ideas we disagree with, and explain our opposition clearly.

Whether you’re a plotter, a pantser, or something in between, a little planning can help prepare you for the challenges of writing multiples.

Reading like a writer, focusing on the craft and mechanics on the page, will offer insight to how beautiful and meaningful novels are made.