Writers Helping Writers^®

Setting

Using Your Setting to Characterize

August 6, 2024

Using Your Setting to Characterize

August 6, 2024

In storytelling, our number one job is to make readers care. We want to ensure that our fiction captivates them on many levels and that our characters seem like living,…

Using the 5 Elements of Writing to Immerse Readers

May 28, 2024

Using the 5 Elements of Writing to Immerse Readers

May 28, 2024

Have you ever watched a movie based on a book you read and realized the book is so much better? As a writer, this phenomenon excites me, because we can…

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…