Writers Helping Writers^®

Writing Help

How to Boost Your Self-Editing Superpowers

June 20, 2017

How to Boost Your Self-Editing Superpowers

June 20, 2017

A vast number of writers are afraid of their own power. They fall prey to listening to what other people think their story should be—writing friends, Twitter pals, critique partners,…

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Avoiding Financial Ruin

June 17, 2017

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Avoiding Financial Ruin

June 17, 2017

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…

How to Build a Realistic Story World

June 15, 2017

How to Build a Realistic Story World

June 15, 2017

As a fantasy writer, one of my absolute favorite parts of the writing process is worldbuilding. I love creating new worlds, cities, and people groups from scratch. I probably either…

Motivation Thesaurus: Trying Again Despite a Past Failure

June 10, 2017

Motivation Thesaurus: Trying Again Despite a Past Failure

June 10, 2017

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…

Giving Your Characters Free Rein in the Story

June 6, 2017

Giving Your Characters Free Rein in the Story

June 6, 2017

In my collection of writing books is a 1919 title, A Manual of the Art of Fiction, by one Clayton Meeker Hamilton, a professor at Columbia University. It’s a bit…

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Escaping Homelessness

June 3, 2017

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Escaping Homelessness

June 3, 2017

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…

Theme: The Marrow of Your Story

June 1, 2017

Theme: The Marrow of Your Story

June 1, 2017

If structure is the bones of story, theme is the marrow. Plainly defined, theme is what our stories mean, and it is revealed through other literary elements such as character,…

Why You Should Never, Ever Go On a Destination Writing Retreat

May 25, 2017

Why You Should Never, Ever Go On a Destination Writing Retreat

May 25, 2017

You’ll hear from loads of people why you should travel and go on writing retreats. There are lists, like The Case for Writing and Travel, that say why travel is…

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Discovering One’s True Self

May 20, 2017

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Discovering One’s True Self

May 20, 2017

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…

Using Real-World Locations to Ground Your Story’s Setting

May 16, 2017

Using Real-World Locations to Ground Your Story’s Setting

May 16, 2017

Last month I went on a writing retreat in Iceland. (Yes, Iceland! In fact, you can learn more about the annual Iceland Writers Retreat here.) It sounds like a remote…