Yessica Jain
Youth Literary Magazines: A List
I previously wrote about literary magazines and their submission process. However, in many general literary magazines that accept...
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Yessica Jain
- Aug 25
Screenwriting: Layout & Formatting
Screenwriting—the art of writing screenplays for films or TV shows—can be really exciting. It’s a great way to exercise your description...
Yessica Jain
- Jul 14
Pre-Readers: What They Are & What to Ask Them About
You finish your novel. Now what? While it can be tempting to send it to editors right away or even jump to literary agents, there’s an...
Yessica Jain
- Jun 23
Worldbuilding for Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Speculative Fiction
What makes a good story? Yes, you need characters and plotlines that intrigue your readers. But, importantly, setting is also one of the...
Yessica Jain
- May 12
Types of Books Series
Think of three books. Odds are, at least one of them is part of a series. Book series give readers more of what they love, while letting...
Tai Nakamura
- May 5
Connecting to Your Writing
Experimentation is the key to great writing, so it's important to sometimes step out of your comfort zone to give the reader more ways to...
Yessica Jain
- Apr 28
Writing Descriptions that Transport Readers
Descriptions transport readers to another world or time. You may never have seen Camp Half-Blood or Ketterdam or Narnia (we’re pretending...
Yessica Jain
- Mar 24
Writing Humor: Making Your Audience Laugh
A little laughter goes a long way when your characters and readers are stressing about an impending war. Almost every genre can do with a...
Yessica Jain
- Mar 10
Writing the End of a Story
While the beginning of a story sets up the world, people, and themes, the end wraps it all together. It’s either a reward or a punishment...
Yessica Jain
- Mar 3
Writing the First Chapter
It’s really easy to put down a book after reading a few pages, but it becomes increasingly more difficult to do so as you go on. Once...
Yessica Jain
- Feb 24
Target Audience Age Range: Who is Your Book For?
When writing their first draft, some authors keep their future readers in mind at all times and others only write because they need to...
Yessica Jain
- Feb 17
Plot Twists
SPOILER ALERT: I talk about some famous plot twists below. Most spoilers are for very popular books, which I selected because I assume...
Yessica Jain
- Feb 10
Foreshadowing: Types & Techniques
Why is it that the best plot twists always seem to make sense but you never could have predicted them? Foreshadowing is a literary device...
Yessica Jain
- Jan 27
Adverbs: Are They Evil?
“The road to hell is paved with adverbs,” said Stephen King. Many writers have sworn off adverbs entirely and many others stand by them...
Yessica Jain
- Dec 9, 2021
Editing Effectively: Things to Focus on When Self-Editing
The step after revising is the one despised by most writers. It can be tedious and annoying, and it’s often a cause for headaches. It’s...
Yessica Jain
- Dec 2, 2021
Revising & Rewriting Your Novel
To those of you who partook in NaNoWriMo last month, congratulations! Even if you didn’t reach your goal, you made considerable progress...
Yessica Jain
- Nov 18, 2021
Passive Voice: What It Is & How to Fix It
Writers, publishers, and English teachers have been annoyed by passive voice for years. And yes, I know I just used it. I could have...
Yessica Jain
- Nov 4, 2021
Research: Where Does it Fit Into the Writing Process?
Research is one of those parts of the writing process that nobody thinks about. Nobody, that is, except writers. It’s so essential but...
Yessica Jain
- Oct 14, 2021
Tropes in Fantasy: Examples & Purposes
The old mentor, the quest, the secret heir… These are all examples of common tropes in fantasy. If you’re an avid fantasy reader, you can...
Yessica Jain
- Sep 2, 2021
Finishing a Novel: What Happens When You’re Done
I recently wrapped up final edits on The Prison of Magic, so I thought this post was in order. From the moment you realize you’re almost...