Don’t Make This Mistake in Your Dialogue
There's nothing like cracking dialogue to keep readers enthralled by your story and nothing will throw them out as quickly as crappy dialogue. Clumsy,...
Write the Tale That Scares You
While a lot of writing advice focuses on crafting page-turners and bestsellers, sometimes we need to be reminded to plumb the boundless depths of...
What Makes Quentin Click?
In a post on The Script Lab, Kevin Nelson takes a look at Quentin Tarantino's most iconic scripts to find out what makes them...
Tips for Keeping Your Characters in Character
In a post for Writer's Digest, the magazine's Content Editor Michael Woodson offers his advice for fixing characters that lack substance. "I call this...
When Your Story is Driven by Big Events
In their latest podcast, the Writing Excuses hosts examine the next element of the MICE (Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event) Quotient: Event. They explore...
Leave Room for Your Readers to Help Write Your Story
One aspect of story that writers often fail to appreciate is the role of the reader in their work. While you don't want to...
Be Careful of Using Dreams in Place of Meaning
It's common writerly wisdom not to use dreams in your stories, for good reason. Dream sequences are corny, time-consuming, and rarely convey information that...
Seven Steps to a Thorough Draft Edit
A post on Writer's Digest assembles 7 previous articles on how to prepare for editing your novel. The topics include:
Creating a post-first-draft...
Advice for Digging Author Intrusions Out of Deep POV
In a post on Writers in the Storm, Lisa Hall-Wilson offers advice for writing in deep third-person point of view. "Deep POV is one...
Maria Tatar on the Subversive Power of Gossip
In an excerpt from her book The Heroine with 1001 Faces, Maria Tatar examines the cultural power of gossip. "Chatter, chitchat, gossip, idle talk,...