How to Create Stakes in Your Fiction Novel That Hook Readers
Want to write a novel readers can’t put down? Learn how to raise the stakes in your story so readers care deeply about your characters and keep turning the page.
How to Figure Out What the Hell Your Character Wants: Goals vs. Desires
If you’ve ever struggled to untangle what your character wants versus what they need—or to sort out all the talk about “external goals” and “internal objects of desire,” well then you’re not alone. It really comes down to goals and desires. In this article, I’m digging into what makes goals and desires different, why both matter, and how to use them to braid plot and character transformation together!
Mastering Character Development: How to Get Your Characters to Spill Their Secrets
We all know that one-dimensional characters won’t cut it, and we strive to create dynamic and emotionally resonant fictional characters.
We also understand that to do that, we have to figure out what drives our characters to take action and engage in our plots. We have to figure out what they want, what they need to learn, what they fear, and the internal struggles that stunt them.
The million-dollar question is, “How?”
How To Craft a Compelling Backstory for Your Novel and Keep Track of It!
If you consider a story to be one large event that creates an irreversible change, then it must have a beginning to have an end. It must start from somewhere and be in a particular state to experience said change, and there must be a reason for that initial state of being.
That reason, my friend, is the backstory.
Crafting a compelling backstory is essential to creating realistic characters with motivations and complex problems the reader will relate to.
Peeling Back the Layers on Author, Narrator, and Character Voice to Write Better Fiction - The Micro Story Elements (Part 4)
Voice is one of the more ambiguous literary terms. When I started writing fiction, I had no clue what people meant when they referred to “voice.” Whose voice? The author’s, the characters’, or an unknown narrator?
It turns out we’re talking about all three, all at once, but here’s where it gets really confusing—everything stems from the author’s voice.
How to Write Character Thoughts: Read Deep to Write Better Fiction-The Micro Elements (Part 3)
Inner monologue are the thoughts the POV character thinks but doesn’t voice out loud. It’s their “inside voice.” This inside voice is key to allowing the reader into the story's experience. Without it, the reader will feel like a spectator, forced to watch something they don’t completely understand.
Crafting Complex Characters: Why Villains and Antagonists Matter
Antagonists will create obstacles for your protagonist to overcome. Depending on your intention, they can also highlight specific aspects of your main character and make them more or less relatable. The villain wants to hurt the protagonist — usually in the worst way possible and on purpose!
How to Create Undeniable Romantic Chemistry Between Your Characters
Romantic chemistry is that unspoken, elusive connection that you "know" when you see it, or rather when you feel it because it triggers a happy little soup of neurochemicals inside your body that scream more, more, more!
Romance Writing Essentials: Tips for Writing Romance For Fiction Writers
Romance stories are among the most difficult to execute well. Why? There are many reasons, but the biggest is that structurally, the protagonist’s object of desire is also a major antagonistic force in the story. The love interest is the opposition! Wrangling that conundrum into a satisfying emotional experience takes some finesse, my friends.
How to Craft a Flat or Static Character Arc in a Fiction Novel
So you may have heard the protagonist doesn't change in a flat arc. But this isn’t the whole truth; they can and often do, but the change differs from a positive or negative arc. Also, flat character arcs should not be confused with a flat or one-dimensional character.
How to Craft a Corruption Arc: A Case Study of Walter White
The corruption arc is the easiest to spot of all the negative character arcs. You know this one. It’s the good person gone bad story, where a character begins on the morally “good” side of the tracks, and they understand right and wrong, but more than that, they believe in doing what’s right.
How to Write a Falling Character Arc in a Fiction Novel
The falling character arc is the truest of tragedies. These characters pursue their external want, backed by their false belief (what they believe about the world or themselves that does not serve them), to insanity or death with rare exception.
How to Write a Disillusionment Arc in a Fiction Novel
While often portrayed in a negative light, the disillusionment character arc can serve as a powerful tool for delivering a message of caution and encouragement. By exploring the struggles and challenges characters face, these stories can ultimately provide readers a sense of hope and inspiration.
Learning How to Write a Negative Character Arc in a Fiction Novel
I do love a good negative character arc. That's probably why I enjoy writing my antagonist or a wicked side character almost as much as—sometimes even more than—my hero.
Negative character arcs allow us to explore the darker side of humanity, and they don’t get much attention in the writing world.
How to Challenge Your Character and Deepen the Plot in Act II
What happens in Act II:
Our protagonist struggles to come to grips with new information, possibly new relationships, or relationships that have taken on a new meaning. They are swimming upstream, and the water is choppy. There may or may not be sharks. There are probably sharks. Even though things are tough and a lot of internal processing is going on, they are still actively pursuing their goal, which is not pretty. They fail—a lot.
They continue acting from their false beliefs, flaws, and fears and don’t have the emotional or physical skills to conquer the main story problem yet. They may not even be completely aware of the main story problem, but they are learning, which is the point.
How To Write Meaningful Conflict In Your Novel
Let’s talk about conflict! Are you the sweat on the dynamite, or are you the explosion?
"You need to add conflict."
We writers hear this a lot, but it doesn’t mean we always blow stuff up. Instead, we need to learn how to craft meaningful conflict!
A story is about how going from Point A to Point B changes the character.
Conflict is the force that makes the character change for better or worse.