Plot vs. Character Arcs
Much is made of the difference between writers who plot and those who make it up as they go along. We hear less about...
What’s in a Character Name? Sometimes, the Success of Your Story
The naming of things is important. God gave Adam the task of naming the creatures of the world. Magical beings withhold their true names,...
A Call to Action: Your Story’s Inciting Incident
Every story has to start somewhere. You can start with your protagonist waking up in the morning or looking at themselves in the mirror...
Turning a Great Idea into a Great Story
Memorable novels start with a great premise. What if religious fundamentalists took over the United States and forced women into a form of sexual...
Leveraging Your Characters’ Biases
In their latest podcast, the Writing Excuses hosts and guest Fonda Lee suggest ways you can leverage your characters' biases in your novel. Regardless...
Consider Essayists as Models for Connection
In a post on the Killzone blog, PJ Parrish says that fiction writers can learn lessons from great essayists about connecting with their readers. Essay...
Research: Knowing When Enough is Enough
In a post on the Stage 32 blog, S.K. Valenzuela offers advice for avoiding the two most common pitfalls of research: info-dumping and procrastination....
Start with What You Love
We admit to being intimidated by the amount of work involved in writing historical fiction. From choosing an era and topics and characters to...
Listen to What Your Story Tells You
Sometimes a story comes to us fully-formed. We have a general idea about our plot and characters and overarching theme before we start writing....
How is Story Structure Like a Mixtape?
Structure. Is it an arc, with rising action and a climax? A river that meanders from its source to its ending? A spiral? An...
