Writers Helping Writers^®

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Dive Deep with Emotion

April 19, 2018

Don’t you just love feedback from beta-readers or your critique partners that goes something like this: “I think you feel the emotion here, but the reader? Not so much.” Or…

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…

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…

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…

How to Improve Your Story By Strengthening Your Sentences

October 12, 2017

How to Improve Your Story By Strengthening Your Sentences

October 12, 2017

One of the fastest ways to improve your writing (and therefore your story) is to get jiggy with the nitty gritty, and by that, I mean honing your sentence level…

Making Characters Stuck in the Background Pop Out

August 8, 2017

Making Characters Stuck in the Background Pop Out

August 8, 2017

Maybe you have had some of the experiences I’ve had when writing a manuscript, one of which is finding yourself with a character–could be a side character, a secondary character,…

Keep It Fresh: 10 Ways To Show Your Character’s Emotions

June 22, 2017

Keep It Fresh: 10 Ways To Show Your Character’s Emotions

June 22, 2017

Years ago, Becca and I grumbled about how our characters always expressed emotion the same way. My big thing? Frowning. Did my characters EVER know how to frown. They were…

Introducing One Stop For Writers’ Worldbuilding Tool

February 28, 2017

Introducing One Stop For Writers’ Worldbuilding Tool

February 28, 2017

We’ve all read amazing fiction where the worldbuilding captivated us as much as the characters did. And let’s all admit it, when we hit the last page of the final…

How To Accurately Write About a Character’s Pain

February 9, 2017

How To Accurately Write About a Character’s Pain

February 9, 2017

The best thing about this online world of ours is you never know who you are going to meet. I don’t know about you, but one of the areas I…

Does Your Character Description Create A Powerful Image?

February 7, 2017

Does Your Character Description Create A Powerful Image?

February 7, 2017

Your job as a storyteller is to create IMAGES. This is true not just for screenwriters, but for anyone presenting a story to a reader or an audience. Whenever we…