Category Archives: Tools and Resources
When Telling, Not Showing, Emotion is the Right Choice
Hi everyone! A past resident writing coach is visiting us with an excerpt on a new course she’s teaching on mastering emotions: C.S. Lakin. This post is a touch longer than usual but it will give you a good window … Continue reading
One Stop for Writers Now Has a Free Trial!
Imagine it: You’re standing there, holding your book. The weight of it. The smoothness of the cover. How the pages flutter as you drag your thumb along their edges. A smile beams out of you. It’s happened–it’s really happened: you … Continue reading
The Easiest Way to Plan Characters in a Series: Cloning (Yes, Really!)
This spring, Becca and I released two very important tools for writers… The Emotion Thesaurus 2nd edition (expanded by 55 entries) and a Character Builder Tool at One Stop for Writers. These two releases happened within days of each other, … Continue reading
5 Writing “Life Lessons” from an Empty Nester Author
Recently I entered a new life stage: the Empty Nester parent. My oldest son, following his younger brother’s lead, moved out a few weeks ago while my husband and I were in South America. Now, we’re back…and the house is … Continue reading
5 Character Tools You Absolutely Need to Know
Angela here, happy to welcome Savannah Cordova from Reedsy back to the blog, who has done some sleuthing to find some interesting tools that might help you with your characters, everything from those that help you play around with ideas … Continue reading
New Release: The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression (2nd Edition)!
Today’s the day: The Emotion Thesaurus (Second Edition) enters the world! Over the years, many of you have written to us about the impact our book has had on your writing. Whenever we hear that your editor is commenting on … Continue reading
Powerful Scenes: Using One Stop for Writers’ Informal Scene Map
A while back I profiled some of the custom brainstorming tools at our sister-site, One Stop for Writers, which help take the mystery (and misery) out of story structure. One that I left off that post was our Informal Scene … Continue reading
The Six Stages of Your Hero’s Character Arc
It’s always special when a past Resident Writing Coach returns to the blog, so help me welcome C.S. Lakin who is opening up discussion on a powerful topic: Character Arc. I am a big fan of Michael Hauge’s 6-Stage Plot … Continue reading
Tools for the Visual-Spatial Writer (and the Rest of Us)
One of the most important things I learned as a teacher was that children learn differently, and the best approach for reaching them all included a variety of methods. I find the same to be true in writing. I may … Continue reading