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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Conflict and tension are two of those craft terms that get thrown around without much actual advice on what they are or how to create them. “Don’t forget to build conflict!” “You need lots of tension to keep readers hooked!” Cue me looking like this: 🤪🥴😤 This advice wasn’t wrong, but [...]
Writing a book is really difficult. It takes heart, energy, and lots of time. It's a process of personal creation that often takes deep courage to invite critique into, even when we know it's necessary. Often, when we're in the throes of a low moment of self doubt—whether it's because of [...]
Crafting a fictional story, even if it’s based in the ‘real world,’ requires a certain amount of world building. Your story’s world is the space/setting in which your story takes place. It can be as small as a room (as in Room) or as massive as an entire universe [...]
You likely have an idea of what your story is about and what will happen to your characters—a young woman embarks on a quest to save a prince from a dragon; a boy must defeat an evil tyrant to free his village; a person experiencing heartbreak learns to find love again. [...]
Readers are most intrigued by characters that make choices. We’re less interested in what happens to a character than we are what the character is going to do about it. One of the most common mistakes writers make while outlining is in using plot events to shove a character into and [...]
So many writers obsess over the very first line of their story. If I can just get this right, they think, I’ll grab my readers attention and they’ll be hooked! While this isn’t wrong by any means, many writers spend way too much time focusing on that first sentence and [...]
Stories are about journeys of change. Readers want to see how your flawed main character will fight for what they want, how their weaknesses will hold them back, and how they’ll overcome those weaknesses in the end. For an effective character arc to work, you need your character to transform throughout [...]
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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