Writing advice of the week

Reading Time: 6 minutes Fiction 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 minutes Story 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 minutes Mastering 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 minutes Whether 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 minutes Most 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 minutes As 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 minutes Regardless of genre, tropes, and intended audiences, every novel you pick up has three things in common: structure, character, and plot.

Reading Time: 5 minutes When 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 minutes Filtering 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 minutes Reading 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 minutes With 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 minutes Instead 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 minutes Explore how to weave backstory well and keep your reader’s attention on the present.

Reading Time: 10 minutes Subjective 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 minutes Choosing 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 minutes Knowing that sustainable change is important is one thing. Putting sustainability into practice, however, is something else entirely.

Reading Time: 9 minutes Small 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 minutes Setbacks 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 minutes Revising 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 minutes Humans 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 minutes Readers 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 minutes Three 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 minutes Sure 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 minutes If 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 minutes Committing 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!

Reading Time: 9 minutes Working hard is part of any success journey and continuing to push forward is key. Plus: 100 brand-new links to the best writing advice from around the Web.

Reading Time: 7 minutes Writing a book allows you to have a conversation with a reader you’ll never meet. So, what do you want to say? Plus: 75 all-new links to writing advice from around the Web.

Reading Time: 12 minutes I ask authors to let their imperfect scenes and chapters lie, especially until the rest of the story is on paper. And 100-plus links to best writing advice, videos and podcasts from around the web!

Reading Time: 12 minutes The writerly life isn’t as perfect as some would have you believe. Writing takes hard work, but you don’t need to burn out to put out.

Reading Time: 12 minutes When writing, it’s easy to isolate and disconnect from the passion the work used to bring. Plus: over 100 brand-new advice feeds from around the web!

Reading Time: 11 minutes When you write your first draft, you’re telling yourself the story, as you need to hear it, to make the best sense of it. That first draft is typically when you learn about your main character’s goals and motivations, the barriers or villains that hinder their success, and what the ultimate stakes are if they don’t succeed. You also meet the rest of the cast and get to know them, understand them, see them moving about in your story world. But when you tell your story to your reader, you begin to uncover what the reader needs.

Reading Time: 9 minutes During February, making time to write can feel extra difficult. Prioritizing your writing, getting the right pieces in the right places, and speaking to your readers are the goals.

Reading Time: 10 minutes Regardless of industry metrics and analytics, regardless whether you’re established or debuting, through thick and thin, writers write. And in this bizarre, yet hopeful, publishing landscape, writers create their own success.

Reading Time: 9 minutes Writing and storytelling are skills anyone can learn with a little practice, the right mindset, and a bit of help. And rejection isn’t the end of your literary road as long as you keep driving ahead. That’s because rejection is a powerful tool for growth — if you let it be one.

Reading Time: 11 minutes So, you’re sitting down at your computer or you’ve grabbed your notebook, and you’re determined to write. I’ll just check socials for a minute, you think. It won’t take long. Then a minute goes by. Five minutes. Ten. An hour. And that quick socials check turns into a rabbit hole of unproductivity such that you

Reading Time: 11 minutes In the digital age where authenticity reigns supreme, character transformation is a major tool for bridging the gap and creating an immersive, emotionally intelligent connection between character and reader. And at the heart of your character’s transformation is their character.

Reading Time: 11 minutes When writing your book, it’s easy to get bogged down by craft and stylistic advice, storytelling methods, and research on genre conventions, structural maps, reader trends, and more. But if you’re writing a book, especially if this is your first book, it may be best to put away the advice while you’re getting that first draft down on paper.

Reading Time: 10 minutes How to make New Year resolutions — and more than 100 links to writing advice articles, podcasts and videos from around the web.

Reading Time: 8 minutes If you find your book vision is more of a hazy, amorphous blob than a fully thought out story, it may be time to get back to basics to find gaps to fill.

Reading Time: 11 minutes This time of year, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and overloaded. For all the “most wonderful time” soundbites, it’s often the most stressful time of year for many. Get insight into how skill-stacking and focus can help you maintain your progress through the holidays and beyond.

Reading Time: 9 minutes Focusing all your energy on what the reader wants or needs is exhausting. And while you’re writing, it’s often not worth the effort. You simply cannot know exactly how another person will perceive your story. But there’s one thing you can know with absolute certainty: Do you, author, like your book?

Reading Time: 9 minutes If December brings about reflection in you, you, too, may be undergoing profound change as you decide what you want out of your life and how best to go ahead and get it. While undergoing fundamental changes in who we are is a part of many creative professional pursuits, the change process itself can come with its own set of gifts to help us get through the tumult of change.

Reading Time: 9 minutes An ambition to write or edit a book without clear and quantifiable goals and a path to achieve those goals — whatever that looks like for each of us — is just a wish. And wishes don’t write drafts. Getting back on track doesn’t need to come with a headache, though.

Reading Time: 8 minutes If you find yourself spinning your writerly wheels without gaining traction, it may be time to step back from the project at hand. But this doesn’t mean you stop writing. Instead, it’s time to learn about storytelling, content structure, or other aspects of writing from life itself.

Reading Time: 7 minutes We’re just over halfway through National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and if you’re anything like the authors with whom I work, you may be hitting that mid-novel slump. And getting beyond the slump becomes the primary goal. So, how do you keep writing when the writing is hard?

Reading Time: 4 minutes One of the most common bits of advice given to authors is to humanize their characters. Give them flaws. Dreams. Fears. Desires. Yada, yada, yada. But if you’ve filled out character profile sheets, you know how little value this piece of advice actually provides.

Reading Time: 5 minutes We subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and gather the best posts for you every single Sunday. This week there’s plenty of advice about staying motivated through NaNoWriMo.