The One Thing Your Characters are Missing

It can be hard to pinpoint the most difficult piece of writing. From descriptions, to editing, to world-building, to dialogue, to good prose in general, everyone has their own struggles and different pieces of writing they need to improve on. I certainly have quite a few! However, I think it's safe for me to say …

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 …

How to Craft a Good Flaw for Your Character

Your character is almost done! You’ve figured out their looks, what they like and dislike, their friends, their enemies, how they talk, their sense of humor, but something...feels flat. Well, they might not have a flaw yet. “What?” you might say, “But I don’t want my awesome character to have a flaw!” Well, if you …

The Do’s and Don’ts of Sagging Plots

You’re hands fly across the keyboard, and then you stop. You sigh and feel like you never want to write the story again. You read back the last chapter and realize that it’s because it’s the most boring chapter in the novel, it’s not really needed, and it really just slows down the story. You’ve …

Four Part Blog Series: Beginning a Novel: Part 3: Beginning to Write the Plot

Alright, now that you have every thing you need to put together your plot, it's time to slide it all together. Your characters, theme, character arc, plot, story, goal, motivations, message, snippets and epic scenes are ready to be set down into a time line. 1: Set it Down To start, just...start. There isn't much …