plotting & planning
all our free writing craft resources on crafting your story’s structure!
How to Write Act Breaks
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 [...]
Create Killer Character Goals
Imagine reading a story where the protagonist doesn’t want anything, doesn’t care about anything, and you have no idea what motivates them. That’s probably a book you’re going to put [...]
How to Nail Your First and Last Scenes
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 [...]
How to Shape a Character Arc Using Pivot Points
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 [...]
How Plot + Character Intersect
As readers, we’re engaged in a story’s plot because we know what the main character wants and why—and we’re dying to find out how far they’ll go to get it. We’re not [...]
How to Structure Act Two
It’s so fun to start a new story. You’re in the honeymoon phase, crafting characters that make your heart twinge and throwing challenges their way to make them squirm. You’re exploring [...]
How to Build A Magic System
I love magic. When magic is well-designed, I feel it, picturing myself as a user, unleashing its power through my fingertips alongside the characters. To me, reading a well put-together magic system [...]
How Scene Choices Determine Successful Character Arcs
While reading, we become active participants in a point-of-view character’s journey (seriously, our brains become the character). This means that when characters undergo a deep journey of change, we do too. Character [...]
How to Plan a Magical Revision
You finished your first draft! That is a huge accomplishment. Do you know how many people in the world wish they could say that? Do you know how many unfinished [...]
How to Draft a Killer Story Climax
The climax moment of your story is everything. It's Lizzy Bennet and Mr. Darcy making up (+ making out). It's Katniss and Peeta agreeing to eat the poison berries. It's Jon [...]
How To Structure Scenes
Scenes are the building blocks of stories. A scene has its own beginning, middle and end. The best scenes contain plot problems that push your protagonist to make a character-revealing decision [...]
How to Worldbuild Cultures
Start with cultural values + environment. One of the reasons we read fantasy and science fiction is to experience new cultures and world views. We crave interesting governments, bizarre [...]
What’s your point?
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Getting to the Heart of Your Cast With Character Interviews
This post was written by our friend Lewis Jorstad, an author and developmental editor who helps up-and-coming writers hone their writing craft over [...]
Writing Dialogue That Feels Natural
Writers often strive to make dialogue sound real. But the truth is that realistic dialogue (aka, dialogue you [...]
Top 5 Reasons Stories Fall Flat (+ how to fix them!)
When stories fall flat, it’s often because readers are missing something. Even if they don’t consciously recognize it, [...]
