Writing Advice of the Week

Reading Time: 7 minutesThe third person is limited to what the viewpoint character can know, feel, observe, perceive, wonder, hope, remember, or guess, which can add mystery to the larger context of the story or show the viewpoint character’s mistaken assumptions and biases as the story unfolds.

Reading Time: 7 minutesIn the second-person, your reader becomes a character and there must be something for them to do in the book. Dive deep into the second-person point of view and wrangle your reader’s experience.

Reading Time: 6 minutesThe first person is the only POV with a true narrator, but your reader will need to know who the narrator is early in the story, so they understand your protagonist.

Reading Time: 7 minutesPlaying with dual POVs or timelines? Here are questions to ask to make sure a two-sided storytelling approach is right for the story you’re writing now.

Reading Time: 5 minutesLearn three ways to tighten your writing on a technical level by reducing fat, remaining consistent, and using parallel constructions for reader ease.

Reading Time: 5 minutesExternal feedback — from beta readers or editors — will help you see your blind spots so you can fill them and meet reader expectations while staving off overwhelm.

Reading Time: 5 minutesThe best stories live on the edges of movements, as if the authors who pen them take up silent calls to action and then rally their readerly troops for battle.

Reading Time: 6 minutesLine editors look at the structure of your writing, including your meaning, syntax, concision, and word choices. Pull it off like a pro this way.

Reading Time: 5 minutesFacing a stuck manuscript and unsure how you’re going to unstick the story and finish?

Reading Time: 6 minutesTarot cards offer powerful ways for creative people to generate story ideas and work through storytelling issues, including character development and problem-solving challenges.

Reading Time: 5 minutesRecognizing opportunities to introduce rituals and modify our routines for the better can help us create writing habits that stick.

Reading Time: 6 minutesIf during this time of year you’re thinking, “I need something to do,” January is the perfect time to stop wandering, set goals, and adopt new writing habits.

Reading Time: 5 minutesWorried about lackluster scenes? Something feeling broken in your story? Return to basics and think through what a scene is and what it can and should do for your story.

Reading Time: 6 minutesInclude these four elements in your story to fit it within the fantasy genre and reach your intended fantasy readers.

Reading Time: 6 minutesYour character has done or revealed the unexpected. Now, you must figure out how to navigate your story when the path no longer adheres to your writing plan.

Reading Time: 5 minutesYour story’s plot must include key turning points, which move your characters through the story milestone by milestone.

Reading Time: 6 minutesHow can we show our readers aspects of our truest selves while giving ourselves enough narrative distance and processing space to write ourselves well?

Reading Time: 4 minutesAmbiguous pronoun-antecedent pairs hiding in your story may make the difference between reader immersion and reader confusion.

Reading Time: 5 minutesOnce you understand what story you want to tell and what you want to say about it, your task is to get the story on paper. Here are three items to jumpstart your story.

Reading Time: 6 minutesIf you wanted to write a story to submit but didn’t, what held you back from becoming the writerly unicorn you know you can be?

Reading Time: 6 minutesThrough showing, not telling, you provide a more immersive experience for your readers. Here’s how.

Reading Time: 8 minutesLimited word counts in flash stories require you to make careful and judicious choices of what to keep and what to revise away because in flash fiction, there’s little room for coyness or ambiguity.

Reading Time: 6 minutesFiction is unique to human communication, which is fascinating on its own. But why do we still look to fictions? What do they do for us in the modern age? Why does fiction matter? And what considerations must go into crafting culturally honest fictions?

Reading Time: 5 minutesStory structure is the framework around your literary jigsaw puzzle, the order into which you organize the events in your story to create a beginning, a middle, and an end. So let’s talk about some common story structures you may encounter while researching storytelling techniques.

Reading Time: 4 minutesMastering story edits isn’t easy, but there are a few books I’ve recommended to my clients repeatedly to assist them during edits, and these are also books I use myself when editing my work. The good news: Once you’ve absorbed the material covered in these books, you’ll be able to apply the lessons over and over without really thinking about them. They’ll become second-nature to your writerly process.

Reading Time: 6 minutesWhether you are looking for a new story idea, developing an existing story, or beta reading a story for another author, identifying the protagonist’s goal, motivations, and conflicts is important to understand the story’s message to readers.

Reading Time: 6 minutesMost of you will have heard the phrase: When one door closes, another one opens. But that doesn’t mean closing the one door is easy or without its challenges, and it doesn’t mean the door that opens will open up to sunshine and rainbows. In fact, many of the most rewarding learning experiences are borne of loss, grief, even tragedy.

Reading Time: 8 minutesAs fun as it is to conceptualize, philosophize, and ‘what if’ oneself through astrophysics, it’s important to know what the scientific and literary rules are for space travel so you can either use them to your story’s advantage (and please your readers with your knowledge) or disregard them intentionally in pursuit of imaginative creative expression.

Reading Time: 7 minutesRegardless of genre, tropes, and intended audiences, every novel you pick up has three things in common: structure, character, and plot.

Reading Time: 5 minutesWhen you know the purpose of your opening line, crafting the opener and tinkering with it until it hums can even be fun.

Reading Time: 4 minutesFiltering separates the reader from the immediacy of the experience and disallows full immersion in the character’s journey. While there are valid reasons to use sensory filters, removing them may enhance the reader’s experience of your work.

Reading Time: 9 minutesReading becomes a form of procrastination when it distracts or detracts from your writing. Get the benefits of reading while writing by curating your book list.

Reading Time: 7 minutesWith approximately 11,000 books published every single day, how does a no-name author without much by way of platform break into such a saturated and competitive market? By accepting abundance.

Reading Time: 7 minutesInstead of staring at a blank page wondering how you’re going to start writing or even where to start, put away the book project. Write a letter to your reader instead.

Reading Time: 8 minutesExplore how to weave backstory well and keep your reader’s attention on the present.

Reading Time: 10 minutesSubjective interpretation of appearances and other facets of being human means each person has a different reaction to what they’re seeing with varying levels of intrigue, disgust, indifference, and deference. Show your readers who your characters are, rather than telling, for greater emotional effect. Here’s how.

Reading Time: 7 minutesChoosing your point of view and narrative perspective was one of the first choices you made when penning your manuscript, but how can you be sure that default perspective was the right one for your story? Immerse the reader in your story world and set them on a path to build emotional connections to your characters and their circumstances.

Reading Time: 4 minutesKnowing that sustainable change is important is one thing. Putting sustainability into practice, however, is something else entirely.

Reading Time: 9 minutesSmall actions allow the reader to feel the bigness of the emotion. Plus: more than 100 all-new links to articles, podcasts and writing advice videos from around the Web!

Reading Time: 9 minutesSetbacks are going to happen along the success journey. One way to adapt is through appreciation. Plus: nearly 100 links to writing advice articles, podcasts and videos from around the Web!

Reading Time: 11 minutesRevising a story means assessing what the story is and re-envisioning what it can become. Plus: more than 100 all-new links to writing advice articles, podcasts, and videos from around the web!

Reading Time: 11 minutesHumans are rule-breakers. What writing rule will you break? Plus: links to 100+ articles, podcasts, and writing advice videos from all around the Web!

Reading Time: 11 minutesReaders naturally gravitate to a cadence, or style, done well. Plus: links to 100 articles, podcasts, and writing advice videos from all around the Web!

Reading Time: 13 minutesThree big things you don’t need to start writing? Motivation, purpose, or vision for the future. The one big thing you do need to start writing? Grit.

Reading Time: 13 minutesSure we have innate storytelling skills, but if we’re not using those skills regularly, they get rusty. And rusty storytelling skills make for a clunker of a story. So, how can we pull those dormant storytelling skills to the surfaces of our overstimulated brains and make good use of them?

Reading Time: 12 minutesIf the story is important enough to start writing, it’s likely to be important enough to finish writing… and more than 100 brand-new writing advice links from around the web.

Reading Time: 12 minutesCommitting yourself to your writing, no matter what form that commitment takes, is a big part of successful writing. Plus: Over 100 all-new links to writing advice articles, videos, and podcasts!