Writers Helping Writers^®

Tension

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…

Mastering Stylistic Tension

November 8, 2016

One of the first things writers learn is to start a story with conflict. Some writers have bombs go off. Others start with a death. Or a break-up. But over…

How to Choose Settings that Have Emotional Impact

October 20, 2016

How to Choose Settings that Have Emotional Impact

October 20, 2016

Generic settings won’t cut it if you want readers to feel the story–instead, your locations need emotional impact as this immerses them better in the point-of-view character’s experience. Shared experiences…

Level Up Your Setting (and Story) by Thinking Outside the Box

May 31, 2016

Level Up Your Setting (and Story) by Thinking Outside the Box

May 31, 2016

Want to level up your setting and instantly pull readers deeper into your scenes? Start by thinking outside the box about where each moment takes place. The right setting does…

Show Character Depth by Challenging Their Moral Beliefs

May 28, 2016

Show Character Depth by Challenging Their Moral Beliefs

May 28, 2016

When we start brainstorming a character, we usually focus on their traits—qualities, flaws, quirks, habits, likes, and dislikes. Then we dig deeper, building out their backstory: who influenced them, what…

How To Turn Your Setting Into a Conflict-Rich Obstacle Course

May 18, 2016

How To Turn Your Setting Into a Conflict-Rich Obstacle Course

May 18, 2016

Every story element should pull its weight—including the setting, which is a built-in source of conflict just waiting to be used. A simple first-date picnic in the park? Cue the…

How a Protagonist’s Friends Can Cause Problems in the Story

April 19, 2016

How a Protagonist’s Friends Can Cause Problems in the Story

April 19, 2016

One thing Angela and I discovered time and again as we put the Rural and Urban Setting Thesaurus books together is just how influential setting is on a story. Setting…

10 Reasons Why Your Protagonist Needs Flaws

December 14, 2014

10 Reasons Why Your Protagonist Needs Flaws

December 14, 2014

When we see the word Hero or Heroine, we think heroic, which is ironic as they are often jaded, lost, and brimming with flaws and false beliefs about the world…

Books I Didn’t Finish, AKA, What Killed it For Me

March 5, 2014

Books I Didn’t Finish, AKA, What Killed it For Me

March 5, 2014

I like keeping lists: Books To Read, Books I’ve Finished, Books I Want to Buy, and possibly the most informative one: Books I Didn’t Finish. As a reader, it happens quite…

Conflict vs. Tension: How Are They Different?

November 18, 2013

Pulling readers into the story, reader curiousity, reader interest,

Conflict vs. Tension: How Are They Different?

November 18, 2013

One of my favorite Aha moments as a writer came in the form of feedback from a critiquer. (Shout out to all the critique partners!) She kept writing notes in my manuscript,…