Writers Helping Writers^®

Writing Lessons

“They’re All Gonna Die!” Wait, Why Does That Matter?

June 14, 2022

“They’re All Gonna Die!” Wait, Why Does That Matter?

June 14, 2022

By Jami Gold Want to draw readers into our story? Of course! To do so, we often attempt to make the stakes bigger. Typically, that’s a decent approach. But imagine…

Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: LGBTQ+ Characters

June 9, 2022

Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: LGBTQ+ Characters

June 9, 2022

Readers have spoken: they want more diversity in fiction. And writers are stepping up, but it can be hard to write about someone who’s different than you. Careful research is…

Build a Character’s Voice from the Inside Out

June 7, 2022

Build a Character’s Voice from the Inside Out

June 7, 2022

Vocabulary and the way a character speaks are the outer layer of character voice—the icing on the cake. Instead of trying to build character voice from the outside in, get…

Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: Female Characters

June 2, 2022

Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: Female Characters

June 2, 2022

Readers have spoken: they want more diversity in fiction. And writers are stepping up, but it can be hard to write about someone who’s different than you. Careful research is…

Compassion Fatigue: Is it Relevant for Your Characters?

May 31, 2022

Compassion Fatigue: Is it Relevant for Your Characters?

May 31, 2022

We know the importance of making our characters authentic, believable, and memorable for readers. But relevance is important, too, because it makes them relatable. Readers see characters who are facing…

Subterfuge in Dialogue

May 26, 2022

Subterfuge in Dialogue

May 26, 2022

Dialogue—good dialogue—is tricky. Mechanics can be learned; the rules are readily available and are hammered into us by teachers, editors, critique partners, and countless Facebook memes. The hard part of…

Want Readers to Connect to Your Character? Include this Element.

May 12, 2022

Want Readers to Connect to Your Character? Include this Element.

May 12, 2022

Some characters have more shape and weight than others, feeling so authentic we can almost believe they walked right out of the real world. Their emotions, vulnerabilities, needs, and desires…

10-Year Celebration: Win the Ultimate Writer’s Toolkit

May 9, 2022

10-Year Celebration: Win the Ultimate Writer’s Toolkit

May 9, 2022

It’s a big anniversary for us, folks! Ten years ago today we hit the publish button on The Emotion Thesaurus. 10 Years. Can you believe it? We wrote this book…

Using Crisis to Reveal Character

May 3, 2022

Using Crisis to Reveal Character

May 3, 2022

In the writing community, a crisis (also known as a “dilemma”) happens when a character has to choose between two opposing things. And he can’t have both. Shawn Coyne, author…

You Wrote a Killer Love Story…But Did You Romance the Reader?

April 28, 2022

You Wrote a Killer Love Story…But Did You Romance the Reader?

April 28, 2022

So many ingredients go into writing a strong romance. As with any other genre, we want to develop characters who are complex, fresh, relatable, and unique. They should have strong…