Be sure to scroll all the way down! There is an amazing list of subject-specific articles and blog posts at the bottom of this page that you won’t want to miss.
(If any of the links below have expired, try running the URLs through the Wayback Machine.)
AUTHORITY SELF PUBLISHING (PODCAST)
An excellent podcast that goes over the production aspects of self-publishing, including how to format an ebook, costs and means for marketing an ebook, etc.
THE BOOK DESIGNER (BLOG)
Joel Friedlander’s blog on getting work published. Don’t sign up for his email newsletter, though (each is a sales pitch for his services and products). Friedlander says, “I’ve used my background in book design, advertising, graphic design to create this collection of over 700 articles that are authoritative, easy to understand, and fair-minded. The information here has helped guide thousands of authors just like you as they made their way through the publishing process.”
DAILY WRITING TIPS (BLOG)
“Whether you are an attorney, manager or student, writing skills are essential to your success. The rise of the information age – with the proliferation of emails, blogs and social networks – makes the ability to write clear, correct English more important than ever. Daily Writing Tips is about that. Every day we publish a new article, with topics ranging from grammar to punctuation, from spelling to usage and vocabulary.”
GRAMMAR GIRL (PODCAST & BLOG)
“Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules. Whether English is your first language or second language, Grammar Girl’s punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a better and more successful writer. Mignon Fogarty is the creator and host of Grammar Girl. Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast.”
HELPING WRITERS BECOME AUTHORS (MULTIMEDIA BLOG)
K. M. Weiland’s blog is legendary among writers. “K.M. Weiland lives in make-believe worlds, talks to imaginary friends, and survives primarily on chocolate truffles and espresso. She is the IPPY and NIEA Award-winning and internationally published author of the Amazon bestsellers Outlining Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel, as well as Jane Eyre: The Writer’s Digest Annotated Classic, the western A Man Called Outlaw, the medieval epic Behold the Dawn, and the portal fantasy Dreamlander. When she’s not making things up, she’s busy mentoring other authors on her award-winning blog. She makes her home in western Nebraska.”
JANE FRIEDMAN (BLOG)
Friedman is one of my heroes. Her range of on-line offerings — blog, classes, consulting — are some of the best in the industry. “Jane Friedman has more than 15 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in digital media strategy for authors and publishers. From 2001–2010 she worked at Writer’s Digest, where she ultimately became publisher and editorial director of the $10-million multimedia brand. Most recently, she served as the digital editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review, where she led a strategic overhaul of its website and launched digital subscriptions. Jane specializes in educating authors about the publishing industry (without drama or hype) to help them make the best long-term decisions for their careers. She is known for thought-provoking talks on the future of authorship, and recently delivered keynotes at The Muse & The Marketplace, the University of Wisconsin Writers’ Institute, and PubSmart. She currently teaches digital media and publishing at the University of Virginia and is working on a Great Courses lecture series on writing for publication.”
THE NARRATIVE BREAKDOWN (PODCAST)
“This is a creative writing podcast and a screenwriting podcast. In The Narrative Breakdown, Cheryl Klein, James Monohan, and other guest co-hosts discuss storytelling tips and techniques of interest to any writer, student, or fan of quality creative writing, screenwriting, playwriting, fan fiction, English literature, etc. Each episode, Cheryl and James draw upon their respective experiences in publishing and filmmaking to analyze popular novels, movies, plays, television shows, short stories, and song lyrics. Featuring various co-hosts and writers, as well as material from Cheryl Klein’s book Second Sight and James’ iPhone app The Storyometer.”
NEIL GAIMAN’S JOURNAL (BLOG)
Neil Gaiman doesn’t need much of an introduction, considering how much his work has penetrated society and popular culture at large across the globe. His blog is worth reading both for pleasure and learning. I suggest that you read every (or at least most) of Gaiman’s blog posts in chronological order, working back from 2001 through to the present. Hint: look for the Archives link near the top left of his site.
READ TO WRITE STORIES (BLOG)
“Read to Write Stories features weekly writing exercises based on a story, novel excerpt, or essay that has been published or made available online.”
STORY WONK (PODCAST)
“StoryWonk is as much a way of life as it is a business. Since founding StoryWonk in 2010, husband and wife Lani Diane Rich and Alastair Stephens have kept one principle in mind; there is nothing in the world that can’t be made better by a solid command of story. That’s why they’ve dedicated themselves to analyzing, studying and understanding the force of narrative in not just books, movies and television, but personal relationships, identity politics and pop culture. Story is everywhere, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. For writers in particular, understanding story in this way is a powerful path to stronger work.”
TERRIBLE MINDS (BLOG)
“Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. This is his blog. He talks a lot about writing. And food. And pop culture. And his kid. He uses lots of naughty language. NSFW. Probably NSFL. Be advised.”
WRITER BEWARE® (BLOG)
An excellent and informative blog sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, with additional support from the Mystery Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. “Writer Beware […] provides warnings about literary schemes and scams, along with information on how writers can protect themselves; the Writer Beware blog, which covers schemes and scams in real time along with publishing industry news and advice for writers; and the Writer Beware Facebook page, which links to writing-related articles, blog posts, and news items and provides a forum for discussion. […] Although we’re sponsored by US-based organizations of professional fiction authors, our efforts aren’t limited by country, genre, or publication history. We’ve designed the Writer Beware website so it can be used by any writer, new or established, regardless of subject, style, genre, or nationality.”
WRITING EXCUSES (PODCAST)
There isn’t a good summary or description of the podcast on its site, so we’ll go with what’s on Wikipedia about it: “Writing Excuses is a (nominally) fifteen-minute-long podcast hosted by authors Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal and web cartoonist Howard Tayler. Promoted as “fifteen minutes long, because you’re in a hurry, and we’re not that smart”, the four hosts discuss different topics involved in the creation and production of genre writing and webcomics.”
THE WRITING SHOW (PODCAST)
“Since 2005, The Writing Show has provided engaging information and inspiration for writers of all kinds. We deliver high-quality, in-depth interviews, reality shows, and other features designed to shed light on some aspect of writing, publishing, and other topics of interest to people who write or aspire to do so.” The Writing Show ended in 2012, but their archive is still available on-line. You can find their podcasts for free on iTunes, too: The Writing Show
THE YARN (PODCAST)
“The Yarn was created by and is produced by Travis Jonker and Colby Sharp. This show celebrates their love for children’s literature as take a behind the scenes look at books for kids.”
SUBJECT-SPECIFIC BLOG POSTS & ONLINE ARTICLES
Action
- 7 Tension-Building Tips for Writing Action Scenes
- Crossing Physical Barriers in Fiction, Part 1
- Crossing Physical Barriers in Fiction, Part 2
- The Definition of Action
- How to Write an Action Sequence
Adjectives
Adverbs
Advice from Published Writers & Other Experts
- Ray Bradbury: Advice for Writers
- My Advice to Aspiring Authors
- Stephen King: Can a Novelist Be Too Productive?
- Sink or Swim: 10 Things I Learned Writing My Second Novel
- Lessons From No: Writers on Their Most Formative Rejections
- The Secret to Writing a Bestselling Novel
- The Rule and 12 Tips for Writers and Their Family and Their Friends…
- The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
- 21 Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Started Writing: Must-Read Advice for Writers at All Levels
- What I Learned from Not Hitting the New York Times Best Sellers List
- What 12 Debut Authors Did RIGHT On Their Journeys to Publication
- 25 Valuable Lessons from Seriously Successful Writers
- Writing Advice From Professional Authors
Backloading (a.k.a. Back Loading)
Backstory
- How to Jump Out of Scene into Backstory
- Revealing a Character’s Past Without Falling into Backstory
- Baby Got Backstory: Dealing With Backstory in Your Novel
- We Have a History: Making Backstory Work for You
- Talking About a Character’s Past
- Dealing With Backstory in a Series
- Dealing With Your Character’s Emotional Baggage
- Dealing With Backstory (Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff)
- Baby Got Back…Story
- Keeping a Secret – A Great Backstory Technique
- 7 Tips for Balancing Backstory
- Revealing Backstory While Avoiding The Info-Dump
Beats
- How to Amp up Dialogue with Emotional Beats
- Dialogue Tags Versus Action Beats
- Writing Dialogue That Speaks Volumes (yes, this is about beats)
Beta Readers, Critique Partners, & Writing Groups
- Critique Partners, Editors and Beta Readers
- Know Your Reader: On Beta Readers, Critique Groups, and Your Mom
- Critique Partners vs. Editors
- Five Tips on Choosing a Writers’ Group
- The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, or How to Choose a Writers’ Group
- Beware Groupthink: 10 Red Flags to Watch For When Choosing a Critique Group
- The 4 Hidden Dangers of Writing Groups
Body Language
Chapter & Scene Breaks
- When to break a chapter
- The Care and Feeding of Chapter Breaks
- What’s the Rule About Paragraph Length?
Characters
- What Makes a Character?
- Does a Character Have to Change From Beginning to End?
- How to Write Multifaceted Characters
- Characters Who Care
- Characters in Denial
- Bring Your Name Tag, Folks
- The Villian’s Big Reveal
- Stuck Emotions (yes, this is about characters)
- Why Should Anyone Help Your Protagonist?
- Have You Met Ted? Introducing Characters
- How to Write Descriptions that Cut Both Ways
- Writing Characters Whose Loyalty is Uncertain
- Creating a Strong Mentor Character
- What’s Their Story? Discovering the Front Story of Your Non-POV Characters
- Character Evolution: Don’t Restrict Your Characters to Your Original Vision of Them
- Does Your Novel Have Too Many Characters?
- Should You Cut That Character?
- Character Traits Thesaurus Collection
- Character Eye Descriptions: The Window to Your Story
- 33 Ways to Write Stronger Characters
- Generating Page-Turning Momentum—Characters & The Wound
- How to Create Dimensional Characters—Beyond the Wound & Into the Blind Spot
- Lies, Denial & Buried Secrets—How to Create Dimensional Characters
- Protagonist and Main Character— Same Person? The Answer May Transform Your Story!
- The Basics of a Bad Novel : Characters
Conflict
- That’s So Annoying: Adding Small Problems to Your Plot
- Stop That Fighting! Conflicts Aren’t All About the Punches
- Do You Suffer from NWS? Living with Nice Writer Syndrome
- Violence Isn’t Always the Answer: Causing Trouble Without Making Trouble
- Dilemma: The Source of Our Story
- 7 Ways to Create Conflict in Your Novel
- How to Escalate Conflict in Your Novel
- Worrying Isn’t Action
- Make Problems Actionable
- Bad Obstacles
- Bridging Conflict
- Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense
- How To Master Conflict In Young Adult Fiction
Description
- Let’s Talk About Adjectives
- Appeal to the Senses–and Emotions
- Enhancing Your Descriptions
- Did You Hear That? Showing Sound
- Zip! Crash! Bang! Using Onomatopoeia
- Are You Choosing the Best Words to Describe Your Setting?
- How Much Do You Need to Describe Your Setting? (The Literary Tour Guide)
- An Age-Old Question: How Do You Show a Character’s Age?
- You’re So Emotional: Describing Emotions
- Do You Think He Likes Me? Conveying Emotions
- How to Craft a Love Scene
- Is Description Helping Your Story or Holding It Back?
- And Coming Up on the Left, Stuff: Writing Description
- Write What You Don’t Know: POV and Description
- How Much Do You Need to Describe Your Characters?
- Is Your Prose Purple?
- Avoid Overwriting–Subtle is More Sophisticated
- Description Issues
- Character Self-Description
- Characterizing Details
- The Indirect Comparison
- Positive Versus Negative Description
- Picking a Level of Description
- Describing What the Mind is Doing
- The Writer’s Bane: Describing a Character’s Physical Appearance
- Say Something Simple
- Three When One Will Do
- Two Signs of Overwriting and Why It’s a Problem
- How to Write Vivid Character Descriptions: Be Invisible
Dialogue
- Sitting Around and Talking
- Interruptions and Trailing Off
- Tag, You’re It! How to Write Excellent Dialogue Tags
- Dialogue Masterclass
- Show, Don’t Tell: Revealing True Emotion In Dialogue
- Talk Amongst Yourselves: Realistic Dialogue
- He Said, She Said: Formatting Dialogue
- The Right Time to Speak: Proper Dialogue Placement
- Tag! You’re It! Talking About Dialogue Tags
- Give Me a Beat: Rhythm in Dialogue
- Do You Have Too Much Dialogue?
- “Speech tags are of the devil,” he said
- Dialect in Dialogue: A Little Goes a Long Way
- Making Dialogue Dynamic
- Flirting and Writing Good Dialogue
- Formatting Internal Dialogue: Quotation Marks or Italics?
Diversity in Literature & Writing
- Creating a Market for Diverse Books: An Interview With First Book CEO Kyle Zimmer
- On Gender in Literature
- “We Might Start a Revolution”: POC Voices in MFA Writing Programs
- Of Jellyfish, Otjize, and Afrofuturism: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
- I Gave A Speech About Race To The Publishing Industry And No One Heard Me
- Beta-Readers and Editors: Diversity is Strength
- 12 Fundamentals Of Writing “The Other” (And The Self)
- Writing the Other
- Diversity, Appropriation, and Writing the Other
- Louise Erdrich on her fiction: ‘I’m writing out of the mixture of cultures’
- Why Being a POC Author Sucks Sometimes
- MFA vs. POC
- The Advantages of Being a White Writer
- A Few Tips and Resources for Writing Characters of Color
- Writing People of Color (if you happen to be a person of another color)
- Describing characters of color in writing
- White Writer, Black Characters: Bad Idea?
- For a Writer of Color, Is Twitter More Valuable Than an MFA?
- I read only non-white authors for 12 months. What I learned surprised me.
- Transracial Writing for the Sincere
- How to Write Women of Color and Men of Color if you are White.
- (How) Should a White person write a POC? My thoughts and a resource list.
- PSA: Your Default Narrative Settings Are Not Apolitical
- ‘We Have Always Fought’: Challenging the ‘Women, Cattle and Slaves’ Narrative
- What Is Privilege? (Sometimes when creating characters, it’s important to ask questions like these—listed in the transcript below the video at the link below—in order to really make each person believable and relate-able to your audience.)
- NK Jemisin: the fantasy writer upending the ‘racist and sexist status quo’
- Writers Of Color In SFF
- Let’s Stop Shaming Little Boys Who Read About Girls
- Busting the Binary Stereotype: Women Warriors, Weaklings, and Healers
- The Iron Bustle by G.D. Falksen
- On Writing Strong (Female) Characters
- Writing Women Characters as Human Beings
- On Writing Convincing Male Characters
- On Writing LGBTQ* Characters
- How To write Gay Characters In Your Mainstream Fiction: A Guide For A Friend
- Using Gender-Neutral Pronouns in Your Writing: Basics for Beginners
- What Does “She” in Science Fiction Tell Us About Language on Earth?
Emotion
- Guiding the Reader Emotionally
- Juicing Emotion
- Layers of Emotion
- The Four Horsemen of the Prose-ocalypse (yes, this is about emotion)
- Building Emotional Anticipation
- The Blurt
- Conscious vs. Unconscious Action (this is about how emotion plays a part in action)
- For Crying Out Loud
- The Melodrama Dilemma
- Five Ways to Describe Emotions Without Making Your Character Feel Too Self-Aware
- You’re So Emotional: Describing Emotions
- Do You Feel It? Writing with Emotional Layers
- Alternative Ways to Describe Character Reactions
- Busta Mood: Using the Emotional State of Your Characters to Craft Better Scenes
- Getting the Best Response From Your Characters
- Do You Think He Likes Me? Conveying Emotions
- How to Correctly Use Emotion to Convey Drama and Set the Pace
- How Emotional Peril Keeps Readers Reading
- Description 911: Over Expressed Emotions
- Writing Extreme Emotion Without the Melodrama
- Cultivate Reader Interest Through Unexpected Emotions
- Emotion Thesaurus Entry Collection (Samples)
- Emotion Amplifiers
English Language History, Dialects/Variants, & Evolution
- Merriam-Webster’s Peter Sokolowski Explains How Dictionary Definitions Change Over Time
- English: The Dirty Secrets of the Good Old Days
- How the English language became such a mess
- Global English: Monthsary, Updation, and Do the Needful
- How Do Words Get in the Dictionary?
- A Language Lover’s Trip to England
- Style and Register
- Bad Grammar :: Good Fiction
- What Does “Proper English” Mean?
- The mysterious origins of punctuation
- Literary Snobbery
- Down With Snobs — In Defense of Terry Pratchett
- Because language
Entrepreneurship & Freelancing
- Authorpreneurship: To succeed, authors must be more businesslike
- Making a living from writing, writing from making a living
- Amazon Pays $450,000 A Year To This Self-Published Writer (but he’s doing all the work)
- Stop Underpaying Writers
- Why Our Author Brand is More Important than Ever Before
- Words Invented by Shakespeare
- The 7 Reactions to Language Change
- Dorit Sasson on How Authors Can Make a Crowdfunding Campaign Fun and Profitable
- 5 Proven and Effective Book Promotion Strategies for Authors
- The Costs and Changes Caused by Ad Blocking (This can impact ebooks with interactive elements such as external links or ads, reading or ebook apps with in-app purchases available, and blogs that rely on ad clicks for revenue.)
- How I Manage My Time
- 22 Expert Tips for Writing Faster
- 5 Steps for Transforming Your Living Room Into a (Productive) Workplace
- Marketing Advice from a Publishing Pro: Jane Friedman Shares Her Best Tips
Expectations versus Reality
- About the Book Writing Profession — What Authors Should Know
- Being an author is AMAZING! Except when it’s not. Expectations vs. reality for the debut author.
- The Reality of a Times Bestseller
- The Cold Publishing Equations: Books Sold + Marketability + Love
- No, Seriously, I’m Not F****** Around, You Really Don’t Want To Be A Writer
- The Financial Reality of a Genre Novelist
- 10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Becoming a Published Author
- The Reality of Being an Author by Samantha Hoffman
- The Reality of Being an Author by Jessica Jewitt
- A Year of Finances – The Reality of a Writer & Editor
- The Unemployed Life of a Professional Writer
Exposition
Figurative Language (allusions, analogies, metaphors, similes, hyberbole, etc.)
- The Tolstoy of the Zulus. The Citizen Kane of Video Games. Subsumptive Analogies Are the Hitler of Figurative Speech!
- Synecdoche Examples
- How Our Brain Understands Hyperbole
Flashbacks
- Using Flashbacks in Writing
- Cover Me, I’m Going Back: Tips on Writing Flashbacks
- Flashbacks in Books
Foreshadowing
- I Have a Message for Ms. Reader: Are You Telegraphing Your Plot?
- The Physiology of Foreshadowing
- Foreshadowing — Don’t You Love it?
- Trail Blazing: Planting the Clues and Hints in Your Story
- Make the Most of Accidental Foreshadowing
- Setting Up the Tension in Your Novel
- One, Two Three, Notice Me: The Rule of Three
- The Promise of the Novel
General Discussions (on writing, storytelling, and literature overall)
- Defining Good Writing
- Man in a Hole
- Fourteen Principles for Creative Writers
- Reassuring Life Advice For Struggling Artists
- Some Observations on Electric Eels
- Springing Surprises
- Talking Books: Aristotle, Austen, Plot, and Pleasure
- The Elements of Writerly Talent and Improvement
- Theory: The Klein Pyramid of Literary Quality
- A Reaction to Klein’s Pyramid of Literary Quality
- On Where Genres Come From and How to Stitch Them Together
- The Uses and Value of Realism in Speculative Fiction
- In Defense of Complexity
- Balancing Beauty, Language, and Story
- Books I Didn’t Finish
- Characters Who Aren’t Endearing
- Too Much Going On
- Clichéd Characters
- Harry Potter and the Never-Ending Story
- Weak Writing
- Action Too Early
- Issues with Sequels
- Personal Preferences
- Why Process, Criticism, and Theory Can Be Good for All Writers
- The Five Elements Every Book Needs
- Knowing Your Audience
- Trust Me, I’m a Reader: Writing for Your Audience
- Breaking the Rules of Writing
- How to Write New Adult Fiction
- A Writer’s Main Objective
- A Balance of Action and Information
- Boiling It Down
- What Makes a Lasting Novel
- If You Write About an Issue, Do It Justice
- Writing Adaptations
- Animal Characters
- Antagonists in Contemporary Fiction
- Laying the Groundwork for a Series
- Crushes and Chemistry
- Relatability
- The Problem with Immortality
- Why I Am Not Turning the Pages of this Novel
- Want to Write Like a Best Seller? Write Naked First
- Don’t Let the Thrillers Hog the Freezer
- Emotional Barriers in Fiction, Part 1: Why is it so important to cross it?
- Emotional Barriers in Fiction, Part 2: After you cross it, what’s next?
- Emotional Barriers in Fiction, Part 3: Intro to emotional channels
- The Doomed and Beautiful Reach: On Prose and Music
- Can Writing Be Taught?
- Writing Begins With Forgiveness: Why One of the Most Common Pieces of Writing Advice Is Wrong
- For Love of an Author: The Value of Being a Completist
- What New Research on the Brain Says Every Writer Should Do
Genre-Specific Advice: Crime, Horror, Mystery, Suspense, & Thriller
- How To Write A Great Mystery
- Writing Spy Fiction with an Unputdownable Plot
- How to Write a Thriller
- Elements of the Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Suspense and/or Crime Fiction Genres
- How to write a thriller: Great beginnings
- How to Write Thrillers that Actually Thrill
- This Is a Towel: Resources for Writing Espionage
- Scandinavian Crime Wave: Why the most peaceful people on earth write the greatest homicide thrillers
- How To Scare Your Reader: 11 Tips From 11 Horror Writers
- The Language of Crime
Genre-Specific Advice: Historical Fiction
- How I write: Historical fiction
- 10 Tips for Aspiring Historical Fiction Authors
- How to Write Historical Fiction: 7 Tips on Accuracy and Authenticity
- Tanya Landman’s top tips for writing historical fiction
- Genre Help: Historical Fiction
- Mummy, is it true?
- Diction (in historical fiction)
- When writing historical fiction, nothing beats the first draft of history for research
- A Reading List for Self-Guided Study of Ancient Literature
- Capitalizing Age Names, Time Periods, and Centuries
Genre-Specific Advice: Speculative/Science Fiction/Fantasy
- 10 Laws of Good Science Fiction
- Writing Fantasy: A Short Guide To The Genre
- 10 Writing “Rules” We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break
- Fantasy Fiction Clichés to Avoid – What Beginners Do in Fantasy Fiction
- Philip Womack: how to write a fantasy world
- Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy: A Few Quick Tips
- Setting: The Key to Science Fiction
- Science in Science Fiction: Making it work
- What’s the Magic Word: Defining the Sources, Effects and Costs of Magic
- Mixing Science and Magic: A Recipe for Disaster?
- Finessing the [Sci-Fi/Fantasy] Info Dump
- 20 Great Infodumps from Science Fiction Novels
- Pitfalls of Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy, General Useful Information, & Other Opinionated Comments
- Women Rise in Science Fiction (Again)
- Getting the Archaeology Right in Fantasy Fiction
- 11 History Books You Should Read Before Writing Your Military SF Novel
- Apostrophes in Science Fiction and Fantasy Names
Goals
- Oh, Woe Is Me: Giving Your Characters a Goal
- Goals: Does Every Character Need the Same One?
- Goals! Are You Making Them Too Obvious?
- Running on Autopilot: Working with Unconscious Goals
Head Hopping (please check out the links in the Point of View section, too)
- Headhopping, Authorial Intrusion, and Shocked Expressions
- Do You Head-Hop? Getting Third Person Point of View Right
- What Is Head Hopping and How Can We Avoid It?
- Myths about Point of View
Hooks
- The Joy of Discovery: Keeping Readers Hooked Through Story Revelations
- You Had Me at Chapter One: Different Ways to Hook Your Reader
- Here’s the Pitch—It’s a Hit! Crafting Your Novel’s Pitch Line
- Is Your Second Line as Good as Your First? Making the Most of Your Paragraphs
- Hook Lines and Stinkers: Crafting Hook Lines to Draw the Reader In
- Pickup Lines: The One-Line Summary
- Double Jeopardy: Hooking the Reader’s Brains and Heart
- Wait For It: Hook Lines and the Dramatic Pause
- Story Rules: Things Every Story Needs to Do
Imagery
Info Dumping
- The Power of Explanation Compels You: Avoiding the Dreaded Info Dump
- To the Dump, To the Dump, to the Dump, Dump, Dump … The Danger of Info Dumps
- Your Words Are Dead to Me: Info Dumps Through Dialogue
- Ready, Set … Where’s the Action? Keeping Informative Scenes Tense
- Dumping the Info Dumps
- 20 Great Infodumps from Science Fiction Novels
Interiority
Intellectual Property & Copyright
- Rights: What They Mean and Why They’re Important
- Important. And pass it on…
- Lisbeth Salander: The Girl Who Survived Her Creator
- How to Use Brand Names in Your Fiction (Just Like TFIOS)
- Defining what is “previously published”
Internalization (Internal Dialogue)
- 5 Reasons Internal Dialogue is Essential in Fiction (And How to Use It in Your Story)
- Interrupted Thoughts
- Thinking to Myself: Internalization 101
- Living in My Head: Crafting Natural-Sounding Internal Thought
- Internal Medicine: How Much Internalization is Too Much?
- Bob and Weave: How to Mix Character Actions and Internal Thought
- Choosing Which Thoughts to Italicize
- Are You Showing or Telling Your Internalization?
- Avoiding Awkward (or Unnecessary) Internal Questions
- Formatting Internal Dialogue: Quotation Marks or Italics?
Literary Agents
- How I Landed A Literary Agent & What You Can Learn From It
- The right way to query a literary agent about your book
- Literary Agents
Literary Magazines
- Is It Time for Literary Magazines to Rethink the Slush?
- Anatomy of a Discovery: How a Literary Magazine Editor Finds New Writers
- Three Tips for Submitting Your Work
- Don’t Do This At Home: The Four Biggest Mistakes in Contest Entries
Logistics
Mood
Motivation (for characters)
- Keeping Goals and Motivations Fresh
- What’s My Motivation? Tips on Showing Character Motivations
- Are Your Characters Motivated?
- Why Am I Doing This Again?
- Why Ask Why? Because Your Readers Will
- Decisions, Decisions: Character Choices That Matter
- Don’t Like It? Tough! Making Characters Make Tough Choices
- Two Questions to Ask for Stronger Character Goals and Motivation
- Positive and Negative Motivation
- A Quick Reminder About Motivation
MRU (Motivation-Reaction Units)
- Motivation-Reaction Units: Cracking the Code of Good Writing
- King of Dramatic Impact: Don’t Skip this Key Element of Fiction
- The Power of Reaction
- Stimulus First, Then Reaction
- Use Action and Reaction to Pull the Reader Through Your Story
Narrative
- Play-by-Play Narration
- Who is Your Narrator Talking To?
- Voice as Narrative Lens and Reader Lubricant
- Thoughts on Narrative Framing Devices
Outlining
- Should You Outline Your Novel?
- Outlining Your Novel: Why and How
- Outline Your Novel: The 5-Step Game Plan
- The Snowflake Method for Designing a Novel
- 8 Ways to Outline a Novel
- 6 Ways to Outline Your Novel Faster
- How to Be a Plotter Even If You’re a Pantser
- Novel Planning for Pantsers
- Chapter Outlining like a Pantser
- Why I Quit Pantsing and Became a Planner
- How to Plan a Story
- Completing A Novel: A Look At Various Writing Methods
- Three simple steps to a bulletproof novel outline
Pacing
- And the Pace is On: Understanding and Controlling Your Pacing
- Pace Yourself! Some Thoughts, Various and Sundry, on Pacing Your Novel
- 7 Tips to Improve Your Novel’s Pacing
- Move Along: Fixing Pacing Problems
- Give it a Rest – Poetic Pauses in Your Writing
- And Pretty Words All in a Row: Tightening Your Narrative Focus
- The Perils of Pacing
- Pacing Tips
- Pulse on Pacing: How Smooth Transitions Keep Your Story Moving
- Your Plot Moves Too Slowly – 5 Tips To Help Improve Your Story’s Pacing
- Narrative, Transitions & Maintaining Forward Momentum In Your Story
- Pick Up the Pace
- How to Balance Action, Narrative and Dialogue in Your Novel
- Some Assembly Required: Building Pacing and Emotional Flow with LEGOs
Pitching Your Work
Plagiarism
- Don’t Do This Ever (an advice column for writers): Plagiarism Warning edition
- Starving Artists, Team Players and Plagiarists
- Amazon’s Plagiarism Problem
Plot
- 7 Essential Questions of Plot — Do You Ask Them?
- Plot Check-list
- A Situation is Not a Plot
- Writing a Hot Plot
- The Law of Diminishing Returns
- Irreversible Plot Points
- Guessing and Misunderstandings in Plot
- I Hate Nice
- Stalling Out
- Time to Punk Rock With Plot: Discover Alternative Plot Types
- Plot Questions
- Character-Based View of Plot
- Perpetual Plot Problems?
- I Have a Message for Ms. Reader: Are You Telegraphing Your Plot?
- Why Quieter Stakes Are Easier to Plot With
- Unpredictable … That’s What You Are: Keeping Plots Fresh
- Knowing the Future: Avoiding Predictable Plots Through Plot Exposure
- Rule of Three: No, the Other One
- The Hero’s Journey
- How to Withhold Crucial Plot Information
- Plots and More Plots
Plot Twists
- Expect the Unexpected: Creating Plot Twists
- Let’s Do The Twist – The Art and Science of The Plot Twist
- Twisting Your Plot
- Surprise! Plausibility and Its Relationship to Tension and Plot Twists
- How to Withhold Crucial Plot Information
Plotting & Plot Devices
- The Best Advice on Plotting I’ve Ever Heard: Two Tips That Will Make Plotting Easier
- Plot Your Novel with Mini Arcs
- How to Plot with the Three-Act Structure
- Writing Basics the Inciting Event
- Open Up! Writing the Opening Scene
- Beginning a Novel “In Media Res”
- Plotting With Michael Hague’s Six Stage Plot Structure
- Plotting With the Save the Cat Beat Sheet Structure
- Too Much of a Good Thing: Over Plotting Your Novel
- Plotting with the Hero’s Journey
- The Difference Between Idea, Premise, and Plot
- Look! It’s An Idea: Going From Premise to Plot
- Where Do I Go From Here? Plotting Through “What Happens Next?”
- A Trick for Keeping Your Plot (and Story) on Target
- Look Close: Pinpointing the Parts of Your Plot
- Seven Point Story Structure: First Plot Point
- What Are Plot Points?
- The Magnificent 7 Plot Points
- The Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 4: The First Plot Point
- Back Fill Those Plot Holes
- How to Structure A Story: The Eight-Point Arc
- Plot Points and the Inciting Incident
- Fill in the Blanks: A Plot Template to Keep you on Target
- I Have an Idea. Kinda. Tips On Plotting Your Novel
- Having Trouble Plotting Forward? Try Plotting Backward
- Will They or Won’t They? Plotting With Yes or No Questions
- On Tonight’s Episode: Fixing Episodic Chapters
- Author, We Have a Problem: 4 Tips on Plotting Your Novel
- Oh, By The Way …
- What Happens In the Middle?
- Sagging Middles: Fix Your Story’s MUFFIN TOP!
- Mind mapping
- Five Plot Devices That Hurt Your Writing
- Stop Sagging Middle Syndrome: 5 Plot Devices That Will Amp Up Your Story
- Common Story Flaws and Plot Devices to Avoid
- How to Plan a Story
- Using Scrivener for Plotting
- How a Scene List Can Change Your Novel-Writing Life
- How to Create Structure with Teasers
- How to Withhold Crucial Plot Information
Point of View (POV)
- Choosing Your Narrative Mode: Storytelling Perspectives and Options
- Some Thoughts on How POV Works
- Through My Eyes. Or Your Eyes. Or Somebody’s Eyes. POV Basics
- Room With a (Point of) View: Understanding POV
- View to a Skill: Understanding Point of View
- Whose Head is it Anyway? Understanding Omniscient Point of View
- The “Eyes” Have it: Answers to Point of View Questions
- First vs. Third: Point of View and Character Development
- Me or You? Choosing Between First and Third Point of View
- Me or You? Part, Two, Mixing First and Third POVs
- I Said, He Said: First Vs. Third Person
- Leave Me Out of It: When to Use the Second Person
- Impartial Observers
- Writing Close Point of View
- How to Write in Deep POV
- 4 Tips to Solve 99% of Your Writing Problems
- How POV Can Solve Your Writing Troubles
- Should You Maintain the Same POV Distance Throughout the Novel?
- Lost in the Crowd: Working With Multiple Point of View Characters
- Handling Scene Transitions With Multiple POVs
- Changing Views: Take a Second Look When Switching POV Styles
- Your Better Half: What Happens When One POV is Better?
- Write What You Don’t Know: POV and Description
- You’ll Have to Go Through Me: Eliminating Filter Words
- Gender Bending: Writing a Different Gender Than Your Own
- I’m Not Evil: Writing From the Antagonist’s Point of View
- Are You Talking to Me? Addressing the Reader
- Lost in Translation: First to Third and Back Again
- Myths about Point of View
- How to Choose POV in Fiction Writing
Prepositions
- Tightening Your Novel With a Preposition Patrol
- Plentiful Prepositions
- How to Reduce Prolific Prepositions
- How Shakespeare Used Prepositions
- Prepositions: Use and Misuse
- How to Kick Your Annoying Preposition Habit
- Because as a Preposition
Pronouns
- Why Do People Mix Up the Pronouns “I” and “Me”?
- Crafting Fabulous Fiction: Pondering Personal Pronouns
- Using Gender-Neutral Pronouns in Your Writing: Basics for Beginners
- What Does “She” in Science Fiction Tell Us About Language on Earth?
Query Letters
- Query letter checklist
- How to talk about a self-published novel in a query
- The right way to query a literary agent about your book
- Query Letters
Redundancy
- Omit Needless Words & Tighten Your Writing: Part I
- Omit Needless Words & Tighten Your Writing: Part II
- Omit Needless Words & Tighten Your Writing Part III
- Put Your Flabby Writing on a Diet
- Losing the Word Weight — How to Put Your Manuscript on a Diet
- Omit Needless Words
- Thinking to Yourself
- Using Words Correctly, Effectively, and Imaginatively
- When Is It OK to Be Redundant?
- The Word ‘First’ Is Redundant More Often Than You Think
Reviews
- How to politely request book reviews: a handy template
- “Read My Book!” – A comprehensive resource for finding book reviewers.
Scenes
- Writing the Perfect Scene
- Scene Arcs
- Using Layers to Pre-Write Your Scenes
- Thoughts on Writing a Scene
- Get Your Head in the Game: How Character Moods Affect the Scene
- What Changes in Your Scenes
- Where to Stick It – Three Types of Scenes That are Begging for Humor
- Follow the Leader: Moving From Scene to Scene
- 6 Tips on Making Similar Scenes Feel Different
- Painting a Scene vs. Dramatizing a Scene
- Telling Yourself to Show: How to Identify Flat Scenes
- When Less is More: Taking Away Elements to Fix a Problem Scene
- Oh, What Now? Fixing a Stalled Scene
- Hey, Still With Me? Poking Dead Scenes With A Stick, Part One
- It’s Alive! Poking Dead Scenes With A Stick, Part Two
- Pile On: Combing Scenes for Dramatic Punch
- Making a Scene: Using Scriptwriting to Fix Problem Scenes
- Busta Mood: Using the Emotional State of Your Characters to Craft Better Scenes
- Busta Scene: Getting Past Hard-to-Write Scenes
- Taking the Scenic Route: Scenes and Sequels
- Are Your Scenes Causing an Effect?
- A Quick Tip to Keep Your Scenes Moving
- What Happens Here?
- How a Scene List Can Change Your Novel-Writing Life
Self Editing
- Grammar Girl’s Editing Checklist
- Tips for Editing and Revising
- Proofreading Tips
- Bad Grammar :: Good Fiction
Self Publishing
- The Key Book Publishing Paths in 2015 [Chart]
- Self Publish or Not?
- The Truth About Publishing
- Is self-publishing heading for a ‘train wreck’?
- How to Get Published
- The Martian: how a self-published e-book became a Hollywood blockbuster
- Amanda Hocking and the 99-Cent Kindle Millionaires
- A manifesto for self-publishing authors
- Why Jamie McGuire Returned to Self Publishing
- Why self publishing is a lot like growing bamboo
- Dorit Sasson on How Authors Can Make a Crowdfunding Campaign Fun and Profitable
- Ultimate Guide to Self-Publishing & Book Distribution Tools
- Why Don’t People Want to Read E-books on Tablets?
- What to expect from your book cover designer
- How To Use 100 Print Books To Promote Your Self-published Book [Infographic]
- 5 Proven and Effective Book Promotion Strategies for Authors
- Amazon’s Plan to Pay Some Authors by Pages Read Is Smarter Than It Sounds (For anyone confused by the misinformed news that Amazon is only paying self-published authors for pages read … here’s the reality. It’s not ideal or perfect, but it’s not what most media outlets are making it out to be.)
- How to Secure a Traditional Book Deal By Self-Publishing
- Defining what is “previously published”
- Book aggregators and distributors: A short primer
- Which is the best self-publisher – Createspace (Amazon) or Smashwords? Or something else?
- Self-publishing 101: Why Indy Publishers are Smart to Use Two Printers and Not Just One
- Amazon, Smashwords, Oh My: Where And How To Sell Ebooks
Sensory Details
- Immerse Your Readers with Sensory Details
- Where Are We? Using Setting & Description in Creative, Yet Crucial Ways
- How to Use Sensory Details
- Unforgettable Writing: Use all 5 Senses to Add Emotion
- Place Descriptions: It’s About Atmosphere, Not a Travel Log
- Place Descriptions: Waterways
- Place Descriptions – Part 2: Waterways
Sentence Structure
Setting
- 10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Setting
- Are You Choosing the Best Words to Describe Your Setting?
- How Much do you Need to Describe Your Setting? (The Literary Tour Guide)
- If You Can Make it There… How Setting Can Affect Your Story
- How Your Setting Can Affect Your Characters
- Where the Devil Are We? What Makes a Good Setting
- Writing Setting Through the Eyes of Your Narrator
- Using the Seasons to Fix a Blah Setting
- Creating Unforgettable Settings Part 1: Choosing the Right Setting
- Creating Unforgettable Settings, Part 2: Describing the Setting
- Creating Unforgettable Settings, Part 3: Maximizing the Setting
- Creating Unforgettable Settings, Part 4: World Building
- Setting Description…Writing More Than Just What You See
- Setting Thesaurus Entry Collection
- Weather Thesaurus Entries Collection
- Why the Where Matters (Part I)
- Incorporating Setting to Bring Your Story to Life
Showing versus Telling
- What “Show, Don’t Tell” Really Means
- Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
- Putting On Airs
- When to Tell Instead of Show
- Four Techniques to Show Rather than Tell
- Naming Emotion (yes, this is about showing vs. telling)
- Send up the (Red) Flag: Telling Words That Often Spell Trouble
- I Told You: Mental Signposts That Tell, Not Show
- Don’t Tell Me Why: Words That Often Tell, Not Show
- “When” Are You Telling? The Trouble with When Statements
- Do or Do Not. There is No Try: Clarifying What Your Characters Do
- It’s Showtime! Show vs. Tell
- Tell Me About it: When Telling is Better Than Showing
- How Far is Too Far? Far Narrative Distance vs. Telling
- How to Include the Five Senses Without Falling into the Telling Trap
- Writing Advice: by Chuck Palahniuk
- Showing vs. Telling
- Showing vs. Telling, Part Two
- Emotional Description: 3 Common Problems with Show & Tell
- The Art of Story: When Telling Trumps Showing
- 4 Writing Tips to SHOW and NOT TELL
- Showing with Thoughts
- How to Know What’s Worth Showing
Social Media & Online Marketing
- 39 Stellar Examples of Author Facebook Cover Photo Designs
- How to Grow Your Facebook Fans Without a Budget
- 5 Famous Authors on Facebook… Let’s See if it’s Useful
- Why Facebook Cannot Help You Sell Books
- The Ultimate Writers’ Guide to Twitter Pitch Contests
- Formatting Titles on Twitter and Facebook
- Twitter for Authors
- The Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Writers
- Twitter Guide for Authors and Illustrators
- 4 Big Reasons You Need to Blog
- Design Readable Blog Posts
- Ready for Your Close-up? What YouTube Can Do for Writers
- How “The Girl on the Train” Became a Runaway Success
- How to Reach Readers on Goodreads
- How to Use Pinterest to Get Massive Amounts of New Readers
- How BookBub’s Selection Process Works
- Stay Connected to Potential Readers with MailChimp
- Marketing Advice from a Publishing Pro: Jane Friedman Shares Her Best Tips
- Book Trailer Basics: What to Consider Before Creating Yours
Stakes
- What’s at Stake? How Do You Make Readers Care About Your Story?
- So What? Making Readers Care
- Up the Stakes by Narrowing the Focus
- Decisions, Decisions: Character Choices That Matter
- The One-Two Punch: Creating Conflict and Raising the Stakes
- Three Questions to Get to the Heart of Your Story
- Revising to Raise the Stakes
- Raising the Stakes: Revising to Keep Readers Reading
- Fundamental Check: Do Your Scenes Have What They Need?
- Pile On: Combing Scenes for Dramatic Punch
- Establishing Ramifications
Story & Storytelling
- Open Up! Writing the Opening Scene
- In the Beginning: Which Type of Opening Works Best?
- Seven Deadly Sins (If You’re a First Chapter)
- Overcoming False Starts on Your First Chapter
- The Joy of Discovery: Keeping Readers Hooked Through Story Revelations
- You Had Me at Chapter One: Different Ways to Hook Your Reader
- Here’s the Pitch—It’s a Hit! Crafting Your Novel’s Pitch Line
- Is Your Second Line as Good as Your First? Making the Most of Your Paragraphs
- Hook Lines and Stinkers: Crafting Hook Lines to Draw the Reader In
- Pickup Lines: The One-Line Summary
- Double Jeopardy: Hooking the Reader’s Brains and Heart
- Wait For It: Hook Lines and the Dramatic Pause
- Story Rules: Things Every Story Needs to Do
- Need a Jump? Four Ways to Fix a Stalled Story
- Oh, What Now? Fixing a Stalled Scene
- Creating An Imaginary Panel to Get Unstuck
- Writing Prompts and Getting Unstuck
- Making a Scene: Using Scriptwriting to Fix Problem Scenes
- Oh, That’s Subtle: The Little Things Holding a Story Back
- Living on the Wall: Not Knowing What Happens Next in Your Story
- Busta Scene: Getting Past Hard-to-Write Scenes
- Breaking Through: Dealing With Writer’s Block
- Oh, the Irony: Working With Dramatic Irony
- Wait for it, Wait for it—Never mind: Building up and not Following Through
- How to Keep your Story Moving and Your Character Believable
- 5 Surprising Ways Regret Can Deepen Your Hero’s Arc
- Story Midpoint & Mirror Moment: Using Heroes’ Emotions To Transform Them
- Starting in the Present Moment
- And It Was All A Dream…
- The Real Beginning
- Fix Your Beginning
- With Feeling
- Decisions, Decisions
- Making vs. Following Fate
- Character Buy-In
- Complexity vs. Flip-Flopping
- A Little Help from Hamlet
- Bringing the Past Into the Future
- Past, Present, and Future
- Connecting Secondary Elements
- Four Techniques to Get at the Emotional Heart of Your Story
Style
- Third Person-Style Narration in First Person
- Making an Exclamation Point
- Where lie the borders between Voice and Style?
Subtext
Suspense
- The Key to Creating Suspense Is…
- 5 Ways to Build Suspense Like a Master
- Building Suspense: Meeting Readers In The Middle
- Suspense versus Substance: Can Books Have Both?
- Creating Nail-Biting Suspense
- The Thrill of Suspense
Symbolism
Tension
- Conflict vs. Tension (Writers Helping Writers)
- Conflict vs. Tension (American Christian Fiction Writers)
- On Creating Micro-tension
- Deconstructing Micro-Tension
- Infusing Microtension in Your Novel
- Macro-Tension, Micro-Tension and Surprise Surprise!
- Tension and Plot
- Tension and Character
- Tension on the Page or Micro-tension
- Setting up the Tension in Your Novel
- Whoa, That’s Tense. Raising the Tension in Your Scenes
- A Quick Tip for Adding Conflict and Tension to Your Scenes
- Bringing Tension and Conflict to Your Novels
- Tension-Filled Books
- More Tension-Building Tips: Learning From a Pro
- Walking the High Wire: The Art of Writing Tension
- Supertaut Tension and Sizzling Stakes
- How to Button a Chapter
- The Care and Feeding of Chapter Breaks
- Some Mechanisms Underlying Narrative Tension
- Using The 12 Stages of Physical Intimacy To Build Tension In Your Novel
Theme
- Theme, Imagery, and Description
- Writing on a Theme
- Do You Know Your Novel’s Theme?
- The Power of THEME
- Defining “Trope”
Traditional Publishing
- Book Publishing 101: What Publishers are Looking For
- The Key Book Publishing Paths in 2015 [Chart]
- How to Get Published
- 4 Things You Don’t Know About Traditional Publishing Until You’re In It
- Five Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Publishing A Book
- What 12 Debut Authors Did RIGHT On Their Journeys to Publication
- Understanding Traditional Publishing
- Defining what is “previously published”
- Putting an End to Returns: Utopian Publishing Dream or Eventual Reality?
- The Truth About Publishing
- Self Publish or Not?
Translators & Translation
Tone
- Leave a Message at the Tone: Setting the Right Tone for Your Story
- 7 Ways to Perfect Your Writing “Tone”
Verb Tense
- Present or Past Verb Tense: What to Choose For Your Fiction Writing
- The Murky Waters of Mixed Tenses
- Using Present Tense in a Story About the Past
- Choosing Your Tense . . . And Keeping It
- Present Tense Books
- Verb Tenses
- Choosing Your Narrative Mode: Storytelling Perspectives and Options
Voice
- Business Musings: Serious Writer Voice
- Voice, Loud and Clear
- Voice, Quickly and Brilliantly
- The Problems with Sarcastic Voice
- Literary Voice: Developing It … and Defining It
- Can You Hear Me Now? Developing Your Voice
- I Hear You: Character Voices in Non-POV Characters
- How to Write Characters Who Don’t Sound Like You
- Is That You? Developing Voices for Different POVs
- Rhythm of the Words: Voice in Dialogue
- Narrative Voice as Mind-control: Thoughts on Manipulating Reader Perception
- Oy Vey: Voice, and Also Twilight
- Questions About Voice
- Avoid This Common Passive Voice Mistake!
Word Choice
- Advanced Craft Tips – Writer Strong
- Axe Your Clichés: Why and How
- Worse Than a Cliché
- Margie-Rule # 1: Never Take Any Word for Granted
- Margie’s Rule # 2: Write the Hard Stuff — Facial Expressions
- Margie’s Rule # 3: Lock in the Emotional Set
- Margie’s Rule # 4: Add Power To Blah
- Margie’s Rule #5: If the Hyphenated-Run-On Fits…
- Margie’s Rule # 6: Make Your Opening Pop!
- Margie’s Rule # 7: Get Fresh!
- Margie’s Rule # 8: Beware of Writerly!
- Noticing Filler
- Eliminating the Frame
- Why You Don’t Use “Suddenly”
- A Real Had Been
- The Search-and-Find Feature
- Five Edits to Strengthen Your Writing, Right Now
- Are You Missing Opportunities to Make Your Writing Stronger?
- Feel the Rhythm of the Words
- Poetic Tricks: Infuse Your Fiction with the Right VERBS
- Passive Aggression: Avoiding Passive Voice
- I Had to Do This: Clarifying Ambiguous Pronouns
- Slinging Slang: The Case for Made-Up Words
- You’ll Have to Go Through Me: Eliminating Filter Words
- Get Out of My Way: The Awkward Things we do to Avoid Certain Words
- The Eyes Have it: Are You “Over Looking” Things in Your Manuscript?
- Laying it on the Lie: Commonly Misused Words
- The Spit Shine: Things to Check Before You Submit
- Crossing Words Off Your List: Making the Most of Editing “What Not to Use” Lists
- Power Up Your Prose With Poetic Devices
- Working Past Wordiness For Fresher Writing
- Shape Up Flabby Writing with Stronger Words
- 5 Steps to Writing Simply
- How to Deflate those Inflated Phrases
- Tighten Your Writin’—Tips for Trimming the Fat
- Wield Your Words Carefully
- Trimming Just a Few More Words
- Avoid This Common Passive Voice Mistake!
World Building
- Creating a Whole New World
- World Building 101: The Foundation
- Time Period Settings
- Three Ways to Ground Readers in Your World
- Anticipating Reader Wants
- A Magic of Convenience
- Introducing Fantasy Elements
- Building a Lexicon
- Breaking the Rules in World-Building
- Earning/Maintaining a Reader’s Trust: Starting a Story with Cultural Touchstones, Narrative Voice, and Precision (part 1 of 3)
- Earning/Maintaining a Reader’s Trust: World-building, Story Structure, & Consequential Plotting (part 2 of 3)
- Earning/Maintaining a Reader’s Trust: Character/Narrator Consistency and Reliability (part 3 of 3)
- It’s Their World: World Building From the Ground Up
- Do You Believe in Magic? Building a Magic System for Your World
- What a Wonderful World: World Building
- Two Rules for Better World Building
- Creating a Fictional Town
(If any of the links above have expired, try running the URLs through the Wayback Machine.)
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Sea Chapman 