Category Archives: Balance
No Story Conflict? Explore Your Options
As a reader of Angela and Becca’s blog, chances are you’ve seen some of their many posts about the role of conflict in our story. In fact, as a Resident Writing Coach here, I’ve previously talked about how to make … Continue reading
Writers, Are You Struggling? It’s Time to Turn the Page
This year’s been a bit of a nightmare, hasn’t it? It feels like we’re living in the Upside Down. Between COVID, anxiety, financial stress, (and new responsibilities if you have school-aged children), you probably haven’t written as much as you’d … Continue reading
Ways to Defeat Self-Doubt: Hang Upside Down (and Other Creative Moves)
September, 2009, was Dan Brown week in the world of publishing. That was when The Lost Symbol—Brown’s much-awaited follow-up to The Da Vinci Code (2003)—hit the bookstores. The Lost Symbol was not easy for Mr. Brown to write. I … Continue reading
Writing in the Time of Coronavirus: Practical Tips
As a native Floridian, I know about disruption. It happens repeatedly every year between June and November. But hurricanes and their inconvenient aftermaths are temporary; even though they’re annoying, you know you’ll be back to your regular schedule soon. But … Continue reading
Mastering Show, Don’t Tell
We hear it over and over: Show, don’t tell. You can’t get away from this advice, not in writing workshops, at conferences, or heck, even when visiting this blog. Writers Helping Writers and the thesaurus work we do is all … Continue reading
Writing for Carrots
Are you writing for carrots? It’s a weird question that I’ve had bubbling around my brain lately, so I probably need to explain. You’ve seen the old cartoons where the horse was constantly chasing the carrot, right? It’s always there, … Continue reading
The One Thing Writers Miss When Trying to Improve
Hi guys! Colleen M. Story is posting with us again, and she always has good food for thought when it comes to flexing our creative muscles and growing as writers. Read on! Writers do something rather unusual on a frequent … Continue reading
Overcoming Negativity Bias
As human beings and writers, we all struggle with maintaining a healthy balance between the positives and negatives of life. A disappointing review, a less-than-successful launch, critique feedback that wasn’t what we’d anticipated, a manuscript disfigured by an editor’s red strokes—it’s so easy … Continue reading
Personality Traits: Building a Balanced Character
If writing the Positive Trait & Negative Trait Thesaurus books have taught me anything, it is that compelling characters are neither good nor bad, perfect or fundamentally flawed. Instead, they are all of these things. Each has a set of … Continue reading
Emotional Description: 3 Common Problems with Show & Tell
Writing compelling emotional moments is the lifeblood of any story and the key to building a relationship between characters and readers. Yet steering clear of the show-don’t-tell pitfalls requires practice and skill. Here are three scenarios that can challenge writers … Continue reading