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Writing Lessons

Writing 101: How to Fix an Infodump

August 28, 2025

Writing 101: How to Fix an Infodump

August 28, 2025

The latest post in our Writing 101 series is all about the dreaded infodump—when the author drops a landslide of information on the reader and the pace (and reader interest)…

Colonel Mustard in the Ballroom: How Setting Shapes Mystery

August 19, 2025

Colonel Mustard in the Ballroom: How Setting Shapes Mystery

August 19, 2025

Setting is a story element that must do double duty in any genre: it’s your backdrop, so it shouldn’t take over and become the story, but it should be chosen…

How to Use the Four Levels of Conflict to Strengthen Your Story

August 14, 2025

How to Use the Four Levels of Conflict to Strengthen Your Story

August 14, 2025

A cardinal sin of storytelling is to skimp on conflict, and no wonder. Those problems, challenges, obstacles, and inner struggles help keep readers engaged, casting doubt on the character’s ability…

How to Pair Your Book’s Beginning and Ending to Satisfy Readers

August 12, 2025

How to Pair Your Book’s Beginning and Ending to Satisfy Readers

August 12, 2025

Okay, fair warning—what you’re about to learn in this article might spoil movies, TV shows, and books for you forever. BUT—as a writer, you have to peel back the mechanics…

How to Show Your Character Is Healing from an Emotional Wound

August 7, 2025

How to Show Your Character Is Healing from an Emotional Wound

August 7, 2025

When it comes to writing a story where a character is going to work through a difficult past wound, there are two behavioral states to convey: one showing their brokenness…

How to Amp up Your Story Setting

July 31, 2025

How to Amp up Your Story Setting

July 31, 2025

Taking the time to choose the right setting for each scene is one of the best ways to ensure our writing has impact. Why? Because the setting touches everything. It…

How to Fictionalize Your Family

July 29, 2025

How to Fictionalize Your Family

July 29, 2025

Linda Ulleseit, an award-winning author of historical fiction, shares tips and tricks for fictionalizing your family. Everyone has a story! The themes that run through family stories can have universal…

Tap into Your Character’s Unmet Need to Strengthen Your Story

July 24, 2025

Tap into Your Character’s Unmet Need to Strengthen Your Story

July 24, 2025

Life can be painful, especially for our characters. In fact, the fallout of an emotionally wounding event such as a car accident, failing to save someone’s life, infertility, or being…

How to Use Hidden Experiences to Pull Readers In

July 22, 2025

How to Use Hidden Experiences to Pull Readers In

July 22, 2025

No matter who your protagonist is—a formidable galactic emperor, a morally complex teenager, or the retiree down the street with too many cats—readers must find something fundamentally relatable about them,…

Writing 101: Avoiding Purple Prose

July 15, 2025

Writing 101: Avoiding Purple Prose

July 15, 2025

Purple prose is one of those writing problems that’s easy to see in someone else’s work but hard to spot in our own. Simply put, this writing is overly elaborate…