Writers Helping Writers^®

Resident Writing Coach

5 Ways to Crash Your Character’s Pity Party

April 18, 2023

5 Ways to Crash Your Character’s Pity Party

April 18, 2023

We generally craft characters with the intention of making them someone the reader cares about. One of the primary ways to achieve that is to tap into reader empathy, and…

Why Readers Love Anti-Heroes

April 11, 2023

Why Readers Love Anti-Heroes

April 11, 2023

To understand why readers love anti-heroes, we first need to define what they are. An anti-hero is a flawed, complicated character who thrives in shades of gray. They play the…

The Importance of a Great Opening in a Novel

March 21, 2023

The Importance of a Great Opening in a Novel

March 21, 2023

How you start your story is super-important, which is why your novel’s opening is crucial. In just a few sentences – yup, sentences, never mind pages! – you need to…

Character Arcs: Making a Long Story Short

March 14, 2023

Character Arcs: Making a Long Story Short

March 14, 2023

A well-structured story uses events (also called story beats) to move the narrative forward — with compelling issues, rising stakes, and an organic sense of cause and effect — toward…

What’s the Difference Between an Editor and a Book Coach?

March 7, 2023

What’s the Difference Between an Editor and a Book Coach?

March 7, 2023

If you’re all about Mark Zuckerberg’s famous credo “move fast and break things,” you may feel confident diving from writing into self-revision and then editing. But if you like to…

Four Reasons Your Action-Based Scene is Failing (And How to Avoid It)

February 23, 2023

Four Reasons Your Action-Based Scene is Failing (And How to Avoid It)

February 23, 2023

We’ve all heard the writing advice that our stories must hook readers from the start, and that pacing our scenes so readers stick around is equally important. It’s all too…

Getting Back in the Writing Flow

February 21, 2023

Getting Back in the Writing Flow

February 21, 2023

We all need down time in our writing lives—a planned vacation, Christmas with the family, a buffer between big projects. Sometimes we get down time whether we’ve chosen it or…

Slay Your Bloated Word Count

February 14, 2023

Slay Your Bloated Word Count

February 14, 2023

Practical tips to tackle a manuscript that’s too long without killing the scenes you love. So, you’ve written THE END on your draft, congratulations! The only problem is, your word…

Build Suspense With Secrets

January 24, 2023

Build Suspense With Secrets

January 24, 2023

Have you wondered what makes a book unputdownable? What techniques or tricks an author employs to make sure you read that next word, sentence, paragraph, page? One of the most…