Writers Helping Writers^®

Posts by Becca Puglisi

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus Entry: Self-Medicating

October 4, 2025

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus Entry: Self-Medicating

October 4, 2025

When a character suffers emotional pain, the brain’s response is to stop the discomfort, and often this results in a coping mechanism being deployed. Whether it’s an automatic response or…

The Coping Mechanism Thesaurus is Coming!

September 27, 2025

The Coping Mechanism Thesaurus is Coming!

September 27, 2025

Characters don’t always react to stress and threats in healthy ways–like real people, they lean on coping strategies they’ve developed to survive past trauma and avoid new pain. These dysfunctional…

Writing 101: How to Find & Write Your Character’s Voice

September 25, 2025

Writing 101: How to Find & Write Your Character’s Voice

September 25, 2025

Writing a strong and consistent character voice is one of the best ways to make your story stand out. A unique voice tailored to your character makes them feel real…

Writing 101: How to Fix an Infodump

August 28, 2025

Writing 101: How to Fix an Infodump

August 28, 2025

The latest post in our Writing 101 series is all about the dreaded infodump—when the author drops a landslide of information on the reader and the pace (and reader interest)…

Writing 101: Avoiding Purple Prose

July 15, 2025

Writing 101: Avoiding Purple Prose

July 15, 2025

Purple prose is one of those writing problems that’s easy to see in someone else’s work but hard to spot in our own. Simply put, this writing is overly elaborate…

How to Find Symbols in Your Settings

July 10, 2025

How to Find Symbols in Your Settings

July 10, 2025

We all want our writing to be layered. Like a gourmet meal, we want there to be more to them than just what’s seen on the surface. In stories, this…

The Emotion Amplifier Playbook for Antagonists

July 1, 2025

The Emotion Amplifier Playbook for Antagonists

July 1, 2025

We all know the importance of tapping into our character’s feelings and conveying those clearly to readers. When we do this, readers connect with our characters and become invested in…

Writing 101: Semi-Colons & Other Tricky Punctuation Marks

June 24, 2025

Writing 101: Semi-Colons & Other Tricky Punctuation Marks

June 24, 2025

Punctuation can be surprisingly difficult, especially when it comes to lesser-used marks like semi-colons, dashes, and colons. When these marks are used incorrectly, readers are either distracted or confused. Because…

Character Secret Thesaurus: Making a Black Market Purchase

May 24, 2025

Character Secret Thesaurus: Making a Black Market Purchase

May 24, 2025

What secret is your character keeping? Why are they safeguarding it? What’s at stake if it’s discovered? Does it need to come out at some point, or should it remain…

Writing 101: A Tutorial for Understanding Point of View

May 22, 2025

Writing 101: A Tutorial for Understanding Point of View

May 22, 2025

Understanding point of view basics is essential for writing strong, emotionally resonant fiction, so this is a good topic to explore as part of our 101 series. The viewpoint you…