WRITING TIPS

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...

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...

Humans have been writing for over 4,500 years. You would think humankind would have discovered a way to make writing easy. After all, one...

Let me start by saying, it is doable. You can have two, three, or twenty-seven stories you are working on and make progress on all of...

Happy New Year! As you start to work toward (or give up on) your New Year’s resolutions, now is a good time to think about your writing...

Happy almost New Year! Considering tomorrow is already New Year’s Eve, I wanted to take some time to look back on the year and think...

After working on a project for years, months, or maybe just a few hours, you might discover that you no longer have the motivation to...

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...

Writing contests—they’re stressful and exciting at the same time. They’re a way to see how your writing compares with others, they can...

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

A new month is just around the corner, and for writers, there’s something exceptionally special about this one. November is National...

For most writers, a journal is their most prized possession (I may or may not be exaggerating). Some writers have twenty mostly empty...

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...