Writers Helping Writers^®

Characters

4 Tips for Writing Your Character’s PTSD and Trauma Memories

April 22, 2021

4 Tips for Writing Your Character’s PTSD and Trauma Memories

April 22, 2021

Trauma: any event that overwhelms our ability to cope, causes feelings of helplessness, and diminishes our ability to feel a full range of emotions. Anything can be traumatic depending on the…

What Is Your Character’s Emotional Shielding and Why Does It Matter?

March 23, 2021

What Is Your Character’s Emotional Shielding and Why Does It Matter?

March 23, 2021

In the real world, we’re all products of our pasts. Good and bad, the people, events, and situations we’ve encountered have influenced us in profound ways, impacting our morals and…

Should We Think of Our Setting as a Character?

March 9, 2021

Should We Think of Our Setting as a Character?

March 9, 2021

We’ve probably all heard some variation of the advice to develop story settings that feel like characters. Hogwarts castle in the Harry Potter story world, the Overlook Hotel in The…

11 Techniques for Transforming Clichéd Phrasings

March 4, 2021

11 Techniques for Transforming Clichéd Phrasings

March 4, 2021

One of the things that pumps me up the most when I’m reading a book is when the author phrases things in a way I’ve never seen before. It could…

Story Resolutions: Mastering the Happy-Sad Ending

February 18, 2021

Story Resolutions: Mastering the Happy-Sad Ending

February 18, 2021

Gilbert Bassey is tackling a challenging yet rewarding type of ending: a happy-sad one that readers will think about long after the book closes. It was 10pm, and I was…

The Author’s Guide to Redeeming Villains

February 4, 2021

The Author’s Guide to Redeeming Villains

February 4, 2021

Have you ever fallen in love with a story villain? Or at least found yourself liking him or her somewhat against your will? Seems a little weird, experiencing all the…

In a lecture series on Youtube, #1 New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson talks about the three P’s of plot structure: Promise. Progress. Payoff. Promises are particularly important in the beginning of the…

How to Evoke Emotions with Book Cover Design

January 26, 2021

How to Evoke Emotions with Book Cover Design

January 26, 2021

We all know the importance of book covers in helping readers choose books. So what separates an engaging cover from one that potential buyers pass by? Would you be surprised…

7 Ways Deep POV Creates Emotional Connections With Readers

January 19, 2021

7 Ways Deep POV Creates Emotional Connections With Readers

January 19, 2021

Deep POV (point of view) is a popular (and lately, divisive) writing style to employ. Many blogs about deep pov will list out the same four or six foundational tools…

Writing Better Dialogue

January 12, 2021

Writing Better Dialogue

January 12, 2021

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie where the dialogue has been so beautifully written that you are in that moment, experiencing the character’s emotions and hanging…