3 Ways to Shorten Your Novel

When I was eleven, I sat down at our family computer armed with nothing but an empty document in front of me and not a single outlined sentence to be seen, determined to begin (and eventually complete) my very first full-length, 50,000+ word novel. And I did it! The finished first draft was officially 50,026 …

How to Complete Your First Draft (and Fast!)

Hello hello! Writing the first draft of a novel is quite difficult. Completing a full draft is even harder! In my time talking to other writers through online communities and other places, it seems that a very common problem new writers have is struggling to complete that first draft of a story idea. Perhaps they …

The Importance and Power of the Climax

Ah, the climax. The part that everyone always gets to when reading a book. Unless they set the book down. Or the book doesn't have a climax. Whiiich would be weird. Almost every book has a climax, the part of the book that reveals much of the secrets that come up throughout the story, brings …

What to do When You Can’t Hit 50,000 Words

The outline of your story is done! You’ve planned all the chapters! It should be long enough to hit 50,000 words and be officially called a novel. Maybe it will even hit 60 or 70 thousand! You sit down, excited, and start writing. You write and write and write, day after day, working hard, putting …

In-Depth Outlining

Haha okay I’m not going to go as in depth as Marsh-Mella-Man in my cartoon, but today I just wanted to talk about the subject of how to flesh out a novel idea into a chapter by chapter outline. Ready? (This idea is going to be really cringy but I’m not going to take forever …