plotting & planning
all our free writing craft resources on crafting your story’s structure!
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 [...]
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. [...]
Painting Pictures with Description
As writers, we can clearly see our own story in our minds-eye, and it can be so [...]
Overcoming My Fear of the Blank Page
I have spent most of my years as a writer struggling with the blank page. I used to [...]
