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...
Character Change is the Heart of Your Story
In a guest post on Jane Friedman's blog, Susan DeFreitas says most writers struggle with plot because they don't understand their protagonist's character arc....
How to Get a Passive Character Through the Middle
Following up on recent Writer Unboxed articles about the virtues of passive characters and how to use them, Donald Maass tackles an important question:...
Make it Hard, Make it Weird: Adding Drama to Your Story
In a new blog post, Kristen Lamb offers advice for adding drama to your story. "Drama needs to be in everything we create if we...
Cliffhangers Should be Brief, Timely, and Punchy
You don't have to write thrillers to plot a good cliffhanger. Some writing advice suggests ending every chapter on a cliffhanger, which seems a...
Dive Deeper to Understand Your Protagonist’s Why
It's axiomatic that your fictional protagonist needs a goal; otherwise, you won't have much of a story to tell. But even the strongest goal will...
People Don’t Think That Way: Examples on Writing Deep POV
In a post on Writers in the Storm, Laurie Schnebly Campbell examines deep POV, offering both a definition and good examples of how to...
Emotions Are Your Gateway to Story
Maya Angelou once said, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget...
How Trauma Informs an Unreliable Narrator
There are many story reasons explaining why your MC may be an unreliable narrator. They might struggle with mental illness or substance abuse, or...
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...
