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Writing Help

Quieter Protagonists: 3 Ways to Help Them Steal the Stage

March 20, 2018

Quieter Protagonists: 3 Ways to Help Them Steal the Stage

March 20, 2018

While readers love to see larger-than-life characters with passion, take-charge attitudes, and heaps of boldness and daring, not every protagonist wears an extrovert skin. In fact, looking at real-life demographics…

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Real Estate Agent

March 17, 2018

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Real Estate Agent

March 17, 2018

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your…

Deepening Our Story: Theme It Like You Mean It

March 13, 2018

Deepening Our Story: Theme It Like You Mean It

March 13, 2018

Our story’s themes—our messages to readers of what to value or believe—can add depth and meaning to our writing, but to avoid being too on-the-nose, our themes are usually developed…

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Rancher

March 10, 2018

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Rancher

March 10, 2018

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your…

Raise the Stakes By Making It Personal

March 8, 2018

Raising the stakes by making the consequences personal to the protagonist means they are motivated to fix the problem or act to achieve a certain story goal.

Raise the Stakes By Making It Personal

March 8, 2018

Compelling novels have many different ingredients that make them fascinating to read, but one standard components is a healthy, continual dose of ACTION. The protagonist is always doing something: weighing…

Garlic Breath For Writers (aka, Bad First Pages)

March 6, 2018

Garlic Breath For Writers (aka, Bad First Pages)

March 6, 2018

“If you cannot write a compelling opening scene, from the opening sentence, I’m not going to finish your proposal.” – Agent, speaking at a recent writers conference The opening page…

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Corrections Officer

March 3, 2018

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Corrections Officer

March 3, 2018

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your…

Three Ways The Setting Can Steer Your Story’s Plot

March 1, 2018

Three Ways The Setting Can Steer Your Story’s Plot

March 1, 2018

The setting is a powerful force. Not only does it evoke mood, create tension and conflict, allow you to share critical backstory in a non-dumpy way, and draw readers deeper…

Occupation Thesaurus: Architect

February 24, 2018

Occupation Thesaurus: Architect

February 24, 2018

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your…

Want Memorable Characters? Focus on the Little Things

February 22, 2018

Want Memorable Characters? Focus on the Little Things

February 22, 2018

I love building characters. In fact, “building” is apt, because for me, they come a piece at a time. A brick or two might lock into place as I wrestle…