You’ve built out your characters and their backgrounds. You know the major plot points of your story. You’re ready to start drafting the opening scene of your novel and then you ask yourself: “Where do I start?” How do we as writers know the best place to start our books—that’s [...]
We’ve all been there before. Something comes up in our life, we stop writing, and when we’re finally ready to open up our manuscript again, we are stuck. Returning back to the page is daunting. It’s overwhelming. It feels like we lost our flow. I can’t always remember what I did [...]
When you’re daydreaming about your book being in your readers’ hands, who do you envision holding it? Who would your book speak to the most?Maybe it’s a younger version of you. Maybe it’s someone from a shared cultural background. Whoever they are, the person you think of when you wonder who [...]
Writers often strive to make dialogue sound real. But the truth is that realistic dialogue (aka, dialogue you hear at the coffee shop, or you engage in with a friend) is pretty roundabout, usually lacks purpose, and is often repetitive. As humans who have conversations all the time, we have an [...]
When stories fall flat, it’s often because readers are missing something. Even if they don’t consciously recognize it, our readers innately know when stories are missing something, and it keeps them from resonating with our book. Of course, not every story is going to magically relate to everyone. There are still [...]
There’s a reason our online writing program is called Tenacious Writing. We may love writing, we may love our books, we’ll keep progressing and moving forward, but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be fun. I was talking to one of our members in an open coaching call who said [...]
As writers, we can clearly see our own story in our minds-eye, and it can be so intimidating to write descriptions because we want our readers to see it as we do. But that’s not reeeeaaally possible. Sure, we have adages that are supposed to help, like “show, don’t tell,” [...]
I have spent most of my years as a writer struggling with the blank page. I used to face horrible paralysis when I sat down to write new words. I would procrastinate. I would shame myself for procrastinating. I would procrastinate some more. Writing is a really vulnerable act and 99% [...]
We’ve all heard the adage, “Show, Don’t Tell.” It’s everywhere, a warning to writers that this is a rule that without a doubt can’t be broken. Right? Well, the reality is that it’s much more nuanced than that. If we showed everything that happened in a story, books would be thousands [...]
Growing up, I was taught that being ambitious meant hustling. In my mind, hustling became synonymous to working hard. Ambitious meant you wanted to achieve big goals and accomplish big things. So therefore, if I truly wanted to achieve all the goals I’ve set for myself, hustling was the only [...]
Great scenes build an exhilarating push and pull between a story’s plot and characters. Plot events drive characters to make choices, and their choices in turn shape future plot events. This wave of tension locks in readers, compelling them to read chapter after chapter. With the 15 key elements in this guide, you can claim this page-turning power as your own! We’ve included two analyzed, annotated scenes to show you how it all works.
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