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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…

5 Ways to Approach Your Novel Like a Trial Lawyer

January 17, 2023

5 Ways to Approach Your Novel Like a Trial Lawyer

January 17, 2023

So much about good storytelling mirrors the way a lawyer might lay out the case for their client. Our job as writers is to select events and characters that reveal…

An Unbreakable Promise to Readers

January 10, 2023

An Unbreakable Promise to Readers

January 10, 2023

A novel’s opening chapter makes a promise, a secret vow that says, “This is what you can expect from me.” The chapters that follow better fulfill that promise, or the…