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Behind the Scenes: How to Craft Compelling Backstory

May 21, 2024

Behind the Scenes: How to Craft Compelling Backstory

May 21, 2024

A character’s backstory is where all the gold is buried in terms of their motivations and misbeliefs. Who we are in the present depends to a large extent on what…

Three Easy Steps to Generate a Goal Using Fear as Motivation

April 16, 2024

Three Easy Steps to Generate a Goal Using Fear as Motivation

April 16, 2024

There’s so much emphasis on making sure that we give our character a goal that’s clear starting from their very first scene. Win the game. Find someone to marry. Land…

Top Story World and Story Bible Tips

April 9, 2024

Top Story World and Story Bible Tips

April 9, 2024

When we create a story world for readers, we are implanting images and sensory details. From which, the reader fills in the gaps. If we skew that world in any…

How to Combine Myth with History to Create Historical Fantasy

April 4, 2024

How to Combine Myth with History to Create Historical Fantasy

April 4, 2024

Three years ago, I never would have guessed I’d be writing a blog post on this topic. Back then, I was focused on pure fantasy stories. My first novel was…

Write Like a Magician: Creating the Illusion of an Unseen Character

March 26, 2024

Write Like a Magician: Creating the Illusion of an Unseen Character

March 26, 2024

Whenever we write a protagonist who lost someone important within their backstory, we have some heavy lifting ahead of us. That “unseen” character—a character who has died or who is…

The Secret To a Compelling Author Bio

March 19, 2024

The Secret To a Compelling Author Bio

March 19, 2024

Goodbye to Boring Bios Are you struggling to write the perfect author bio for your book, social media or website? Then this post is for you! Say goodbye to boring…

Continuing a Series: Is This Info Too Repetitive?

March 12, 2024

Continuing a Series: Is This Info Too Repetitive?

March 12, 2024

We’ve probably seen advice warning that any time our story revisits information, we risk the idea feeling repetitive or redundant to readers if we’re not careful. Not surprisingly, the same…

Breathing Life into Characters

March 5, 2024

Breathing Life into Characters

March 5, 2024

Picture a protagonist who stumbles upon a mysterious artifact but shows no curiosity, or a group of friends who sit down separately at the summit of a hike under a…

The Pirate’s Guide to Writing Fantasy

February 20, 2024

The Pirate’s Guide to Writing Fantasy

February 20, 2024

Remember the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean when Captain Barbossa explains the pirate’s code? “The code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” Writing fantasy is a…

Four Must-Haves in the First Two Paragraphs of Every Chapter or Scene

February 13, 2024

Four Must-Haves in the First Two Paragraphs of Every Chapter or Scene

February 13, 2024

Begin Each Scene in Your Book with Grounding Have you ever been running late, and found yourself scrambling around your house, looking for your car keys? Where did you leave…