WRITING TIPS

Observation is the key to good writing. Whether you write realistic fiction or high fantasy or anything in between, grounding aspects of...

Whether or not deep third deserves to be its own POV is a subject of controversy among writers. After all, we are always taught three...

In elementary school, we learn about Freytag’s diagram, the supposed general outline of every plot in the universe. The idea is: a story...

Writing involves a lot more than just writing. One thing we all have to think about at some point is: where do we write? It’s easy to...

In honor of Valentine’s day, I wanted to dedicate this week’s post to romance tropes. Almost every young adult novel has a romantic...

With the end of the year just around the corner, I wanted to spend this post focusing on story endings. Like everything with writing,...

A week after the end of NaNoWriMo, you may have a 50,000-word novel lying around. What next? While revising and editing may seem...

What makes a good story? Yes, you need characters and plotlines that intrigue your readers. But, importantly, setting is also one of the...

Characters are the heart of any story. Most readers read because they’re invested in the characters. They want to see how a character...

Happy Pride Month! In honor of pride month, this week’s post talks about the importance of diversity in literature and how to incorporate...

Stakes are the lifeblood of every story. If there’s nothing at stake for the characters, there’s nothing at stake for the readers. If...

Descriptions transport readers to another world or time. You may never have seen Camp Half-Blood or Ketterdam or Narnia (we’re pretending...

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...

Somehow, this is already my 50th post, so I wanted to take a slightly different, more fun approach to writing and discuss some writing...

SPOILER ALERT: I talk about some famous plot twists below. Most spoilers are for very popular books, which I selected because I assume...

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...

Almost every story can be traced back to some core plotline that can be found in other books of that type. Harry Potter is about the...

In previous posts, I have discussed drafting, revising, and editing, but however difficult these stages of the writing process may be,...

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...

At heart, books are defined by the decisions of their characters. That’s why it is essential that characters have a clear moral code....