Character Motivation Entry: Protecting One’s Home or Property
Character Motivation Entry: Protecting One’s Home or Property
What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer…
Read more…Character Motivation Thesaurus: Rescuing Someone from a Captor
Character Motivation Thesaurus: Rescuing Someone from a Captor
What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…
Read more…Story Midpoint & Mirror Moment: Using Heroes’ Emotions To Transform Them
Story Midpoint & Mirror Moment: Using Heroes’ Emotions To Transform Them
I recently read a Huff Post psychology piece on Turning Negative Emotions Into Your Greatest Advantage and immediately saw how this could also apply to our characters. Feel free to…
Read more…How to Take a Story from “Good” to Great
How to Take a Story from “Good” to Great
Self-publishing costs can add up, so one of the best ways to save money on editing is to take your story from good to great before bringing in an editor.…
Read more…How to Use the Four Levels of Conflict to Strengthen Your Story
How to Use the Four Levels of Conflict to Strengthen Your Story
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…
Read more…How to Pair Your Book’s Beginning and Ending to Satisfy Readers
How to Pair Your Book’s Beginning and Ending to Satisfy Readers
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…
Read more…Writing 101: Avoiding Purple Prose
Writing 101: Avoiding Purple Prose
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…
Read more…Seven Writing Fears That May Be Holding You Back from Greatness
Seven Writing Fears That May Be Holding You Back from Greatness
Eleanor Hecks joins us to share seven writing fears common among writers and how they may be holding you back. Writing is a journey filled with challenges, many of which…
Read more…How to Choose the Perfect Talent for Your Character
How to Choose the Perfect Talent for Your Character
I truly believe that excellent stories require excellent characters. And with so many books already out there, we’ve got to be able to deliver compelling and realistic characters to set…
Read more…How to Use Amplifiers to Motivate Emotionally Challenging Characters
How to Use Amplifiers to Motivate Emotionally Challenging Characters
Like many other kids, I got my first job as a babysitter. You’re probably picturing me as a competent, CPR-trained teenager armed with craft supplies and a boatload of determination.…
Read more…6 First Page Inclusions for Drawing Readers In
6 First Page Inclusions for Drawing Readers In
There are a lot of Dos and Don’ts for a story’s first pages. Do introduce the protagonist(s). Do start in medias res. Don’t start with a dream sequence. Don’t info…
Read more…How to Hook Readers with Character Descriptions
How to Hook Readers with Character Descriptions
I think we can all agree that characters are the heart of a novel. We build worlds around our story’s cast, spend dozens of hours plundering their psyche to understand…
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