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...
5 Tips for Creating an Eerie Atmosphere
While not every reader is a horror fan, plenty love to be scared. A good fright gives us the same natural high we get...
Maxine Hong Kingston: “Anybody’s Life Could be a Wonderful Piece of Art.”
Lit Hub celebrates the birthday of treasured writer Maxine Hong Kingston by sharing some of her best quotes about writing.
“You . . ....
Edgar Allen Poe: The Perfect Writer for Our Times
In an essay for Electric Lit, Catherine Baab-Muguira says that Edgar Allen Poe is the perfect writer for the COVID-19 zeitgeist. "Few creative careers...
Use RPGs to Bounce Your Characters Off Real(ish) People
Dungeons and Dragons has experienced a resurgence in the last few years and its reputation is at least 50% less dorky than it was...
When Your Hero Needs to Feel the Pinch
Creating dramatic tension in your story requires you to put your character in some kind of physical or emotional jeopardy, and that requires a...
Structure is a Thing, but It’s Not the Only Thing
Writers are bombarded with advice on structure. Three-act structure, Seven Steps, 22 Steps, the Hero's Journey--you can't swing a cat without hitting Save the...
Worldbuilding Lessons from Dune
Writer Chuck Wendig rhapsodizes about the worldbuilding in the new Dune movie.
"Dune as a storyworld has a lot of it," Wendig says. "It’s actually...
Sometimes, You Can Skip the Oxford Comma
In a guest post on Janice Hardy's blog, Dario Ciriello discusses how punctuation can help you create a more flowing narrative, and how meter...
