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.
Worldbuilding Tools - A Simplified Approach to Creative Worldbuilding for Fiction Writers
Worldbuilding is where writers create the social, cultural, historical, political, and physical realities for our characters.
It feels like a colossal endeavor that we could talk about for days, but we won’t. Today, we’re going to streamline the process by following our curiosity through a series of strategic questions.
How to Find a Writing Community That Will Help You Accomplish Your Goals
Even when we have dozens of characters dancing through our minds, this writing business can get damn lonely. We have big ideas and exciting plots to explore, but many of us don't have anyone to share with, especially when we're new. If you are looking for a community, I wholeheartedly encourage you to find your tribe because the benefits far outweigh the cost!
How to Use Genre To Structure Your Novel
The writing industry puts a lot of focus on the importance of a writer identifying their genre once the book has been written to determine where it will fit in the marketplace, but minimal emphasis on identifying genre before you begin to write it.
This is a problem because a book’s genre is much more than which shelf it sits on in a bookstore.
How to Create Writing Habits that Stick: Applying Atomic Habits
We’re fifteen days into 2024, and I bet most of us are still feeling the freshness, motivation, and excitement of all the opportunities to come … but, sadly, experience teaches that motivation only lasts so long.
What really keeps us in the game is our habits.
Cultivating good writing habits in service of the changes we want to make and the people we want to become.
That’s the secret sauce. Here’s how to do it!
How to Develop a Story Idea For a Novel
Are you writing a novel this year? Maybe it’s your first time, and you’re wondering where to start. Or you’ve done this before, but you’re looking to nail down your process. Either way, this article will help.
Today, we’ll discuss how to explore a fresh idea and develop a firm foundation of the essential elements every story requires so that you can create a rock-solid premise statement for your novel.
Becoming a Better Literary Citizen: Unpacking Gandhi's Wisdom in the Book World
Do you ever feel like your actions don't really matter in the grand scheme of things?
In a world filled with chaos and noise, it's easy to wonder if anyone cares or will even notice our efforts. I'll admit, I've had those moments too (plenty). But life has a way of reminding me that my actions do matter, even if I can't always see the immediate impact.
As Gandhi wisely said, "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it’s very important that you do it."
This article will show you how to take action to become a better literary citizen and why it’s so important that we do this together!
How to Set Smarter Writing Goals in 2024
There's a huge gap between the dream of holding your published novel in your hands and actually writing it. This article will help you set achievable writing goals in service to your publishing dreams.
How to Write Authentic Dialogue in Your Fiction Novel
When I started writing fiction, I really enjoyed writing dialogue—until I realized how terrible I was at it! And then, when I figured out what I was doing wrong, things got worse before they got better.
How to Handle Personal Experiences and Emotional Wounds in Your Writing
Today, we’re going to talk about an emotionally challenging topic that many writers face but is rarely discussed.
This topic has been on my heart in one way or another for the last month. What clinched my decision to talk about it here was when my client asked for guidance: “How do I write when the messy emotional parts of real life mimic what my characters are going through? When it feels too painful and raw, touch it?”
Crafting Powerful Scenes: A Guide to Writing Scenes That Work
A scene is a unit (think of it like a link) of expressed change, and many links make a story.
Crafting a compelling scene is vital for a writer because no matter how great the story is in concept, it will only hold together the big picture if it works on the scene level.
It doesn't matter how eloquent the writing is; if the scenes don't work, the story will still be a lifeless, shapeless thing that does not hold our interest.
Should You Write a Scene or Summary - A Guide for Fiction Writers
All novels are built from a combination of scene and narrative summary. The balance is the author's choice, but the more we know each component, the better decisions we can make about structuring our story to produce a book others will enjoy.
In this blog post, we'll break down the distinction between scene and summary, see how they are often blended, and examine the rarely discussed middle ground: the half-scene.
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.
What You Need to Know About Positive Character Arcs and Their Subtypes
What you need to know about positive character arcs and their subtypes.
Stories featuring a protagonist with a positive character arc are usually about hope, inspiration, and overcoming. So, it's no surprise they are popular.
We love seeing people overcome difficult situations and uncover the error of their ways so they can change for the better.
How To Construct A Character Arc Your Readers Will Love
If you looked at the previous posts on story structure you can probably tell much of that content talked about how what happened at those major turning points in the story challenged the protagonist to change internally.
This is because PLOT/STRUCTURE and CHARACTER are intimately linked. You can’t have one without the other. So the structure isn’t a bunch of arbitrary plot points. The sequence of events has a specific mission: to affect an inner change within the character, their world, or both.
We refer to this internal change as a character arc. Here’s what you need to know to craft a character arc your readers will love!
How To Write An Emotionally Satisfying Resolution For Your Fiction Novel
The end of the story has one seemingly simple job–to satisfy the reader. Let them say, ah, now that was worth it.
The key to a great resolution is to allow for emotional resonance between the story, the main character or characters, and the reader.
So how do we do that?
First, let’s remember where we’ve been to better understand where we’re going. And keep in mind that a story is about one thing: showing an irreversible change in the main character, the situation, or both.
The story’s resolution begins right after the last climactic event and continues to the final page.