Writers Helping Writers^®

Posts by Becca Puglisi

Phenomenal First Pages Contest

September 19, 2024

Phenomenal First Pages Contest

September 19, 2024

Hey, wonderfulwriterly people! It’s time for Phenomenal First Pages, our monthly critique contest. So, if you need a bit of help with your first page, today’s the day to enter…

Using Your Setting to Characterize

August 6, 2024

Using Your Setting to Characterize

August 6, 2024

In storytelling, our number one job is to make readers care. We want to ensure that our fiction captivates them on many levels and that our characters seem like living,…

7 Tips to Make Your Antihero Stand Out

August 1, 2024

7 Tips to Make Your Antihero Stand Out

August 1, 2024

When it comes to story heroes, there are many kinds, from reluctant to tortured to tragic. But the one that’s getting a lot of airtime these days is the antihero.…

Reader Empathy Begins with Compelling Character Emotion

July 30, 2024

Reader Empathy Begins with Compelling Character Emotion

July 30, 2024

Do you know how many books are on the market today? Neither do I. I can’t count that high. This is awesome for readers, but it creates a problem for…

What’s Your Character Hiding?

July 25, 2024

What’s Your Character Hiding?

July 25, 2024

Being able to write realistic, consistent, multi-dimensional characters is vital to gaining reader interest. Doing so first requires we know a lot about who our characters are—you know, the obvious…

Five Vehicles for Adding Subtext to Dialogue

July 23, 2024

Five Vehicles for Adding Subtext to Dialogue

July 23, 2024

Realistic, evocative dialogue is an important part of any successful story. We need our characters’ interactions to be authentic, consistent, and engaging to draw readers in to what’s happening. So…

Phenomenal First Pages Contest

July 18, 2024

Phenomenal First Pages Contest

July 18, 2024

Hey, wonderfulwriterly people! It’s time for Phenomenal First Pages, our monthly critique contest. So, if you need a bit of help with your first page, today’s the day to enter…

Need to Get a Stubborn Character Moving? Use an Amplifier

July 16, 2024

Need to Get a Stubborn Character Moving? Use an Amplifier

July 16, 2024

If you’ve researched story structure at all, you know there are many models out there, and they’re all slightly different. The most popular forms tend to follow the three-act structure,…

Using Clothes to Characterize

July 4, 2024

Using Clothes to Characterize

July 4, 2024

“Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.” This quote by Karl Lagerfeld is pretty heady. I’m still chewing on it, but what I gather is…

Three Emotion Problems to Avoid in Your Story Opening

July 2, 2024

Three Emotion Problems to Avoid in Your Story Opening

July 2, 2024

As I’m sure you’ve heard roughly a gajillion times, your story’s first pages are very important. Editors and agents typically request just a portion of your story’s opening, and potential…