Writers Helping Writers^®

Setting

Top Story World and Story Bible Tips

April 9, 2024

Top Story World and Story Bible Tips

April 9, 2024

When we create a story world for readers, we are implanting images and sensory details. From which, the reader fills in the gaps. If we skew that world in any…

Continuing a Series: Is This Info Too Repetitive?

March 12, 2024

Continuing a Series: Is This Info Too Repetitive?

March 12, 2024

We’ve probably seen advice warning that any time our story revisits information, we risk the idea feeling repetitive or redundant to readers if we’re not careful. Not surprisingly, the same…

The Pirate’s Guide to Writing Fantasy

February 20, 2024

The Pirate’s Guide to Writing Fantasy

February 20, 2024

Remember the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean when Captain Barbossa explains the pirate’s code? “The code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” Writing fantasy is a…

Four Must-Haves in the First Two Paragraphs of Every Chapter or Scene

February 13, 2024

Four Must-Haves in the First Two Paragraphs of Every Chapter or Scene

February 13, 2024

Begin Each Scene in Your Book with Grounding Have you ever been running late, and found yourself scrambling around your house, looking for your car keys? Where did you leave…

Turn Your Readers into Detectives

January 16, 2024

Turn Your Readers into Detectives

January 16, 2024

Imagine inviting us into your protagonist’s house or whatever you deem to be their most sacred physical space. But while we’re so excited to meet your protagonist, they’re not actually…

How to Create Mood Effectively in Your Fiction

October 7, 2023

How to Create Mood Effectively in Your Fiction

October 7, 2023

By C. S. Lakin Every person or character, at any given time, is in a particular mood. Generally, mood is a person’s state of mind, but it’s more than that.…

Improve Your Storytelling in 5 Minutes

July 25, 2023

Improve Your Storytelling in 5 Minutes

July 25, 2023

What are writers chronically short on? Time. There never seems to be enough of it as we try to get the next book written, research our publishing options, keep up…

Does Your Story Need a Hit of Organic Conflict? Look to Your Setting.

March 30, 2023

Does Your Story Need a Hit of Organic Conflict? Look to Your Setting.

March 30, 2023

Every writer’s mission is to pen a story that draws readers in, offering familiarity when it comes to certain genre expectations while also delivering something fresh so to be distinctive…

How to Use Real Life to Inspire Your Fiction

December 15, 2022

How to Use Real Life to Inspire Your Fiction

December 15, 2022

The memoir section in any book shop is made of writers who have done outlandish, shocking or terrible things (or had them done to them). These books are popular because…

Less Is More—When It Comes to Describing Setting

October 15, 2022

Less Is More—When It Comes to Describing Setting

October 15, 2022

By C. S. Lakin If you’re writing fiction, it’s your job to create rich, descriptive settings in which your characters live and breathe. The challenge—as any seasoned fiction writer can…