WRITING TIPS

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...

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...

When writing their first draft, some authors keep their future readers in mind at all times and others only write because they need to...

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...

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs,” said Stephen King. Many writers have sworn off adverbs entirely and many others stand by them...

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...

Writers, publishers, and English teachers have been annoyed by passive voice for years. And yes, I know I just used it. I could have...

Research is one of those parts of the writing process that nobody thinks about. Nobody, that is, except writers. It’s so essential but...

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...

I recently wrapped up final edits on The Prisons of Magic, so I thought this post was in order. From the moment you realize you’re almost...

Importance As Andrew Grant said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” This applies to the manuscript you submit to...

Last week’s post focused on literary elements, the large aspects of a story that come together to form a novel. This week, we look at the...

Fillers are curious things. They don’t add anything to the sentence and getting rid of them doesn’t affect anyone. However, we naturally...

For most novels, a chapter is to a book like a word is to a sentence. Chapters are the building block of your novel and can be used to...

No writer likes to think about word count. It can destroy the creativity process, force you to cut out your favorite parts of your story,...

Dialogue, description, action, and narrative—all fiction novels will have some of each, but most writers will use some more than others....

If you have finished the first draft of your novel, congratulations! Take a break. You deserve it. One week later, you come back and read...

Dialogue is a wonderful tool: it can be used for characterization, worldbuilding, advancing the plot, and so much more. Here are some...

Who is telling your story? You, of course! Well, not really. Unless you’re writing nonfiction, your novel probably has a narrator other...