It was a dark and stormy night. The aspens rattled at the barrage. You snuggle deeper into your blanket and try to focus on the crackling of the warm fire. Your trembling hand clasps the handle of a cup. You take a sip and warmth flows down your throat. …

“Did you know dialogue is one of the best ways to show character?” Tommy piped up. “No,” Violet replied, rolling her eyes. “And I didn’t want to either.” Well too bad, Violet. I’m going to tell you more about dialogue whether you want to hear it or not. Mechanics You should…

Imagine yourself as the god of your fictional world. You look down at your creation and watch the events of your story take place. Your characters go through a necessary journey to grow and defeat evil. …

You probably didn’t pursue writing a novel because you love research. Sorry to say, you’re not getting out of it. As I write my novels, whether in the planning stage, drafting stage, or rewriting stage, I am constantly opening other tabs to check my facts in Google. Unlike college research…

Go ahead, stand up, do a little dance. Get all that excitement out, cuz today we’re talking about world-building: which might be the reason you want to get into writing in the first place. World-building is one of the best parts of novel-writing, but we’ve gotta dig in the reigns…

The backbone of a story is the plot. Without the plot, you don’t have a story. No plot means no character, no emotion, no suspense, no risk, and no happy ending. Every book has a different plot, too. The trick is, forming the perfect plot for your story. What Makes a Good Plot? Essentially, a…

Great job on your new story idea. You might have even done some planning/plotting and are almost ready to start writing. Fantastic! Congrats! Here’s the deal though, no one will want to read your novel unless you’ve got stellar characters. …

Not going to lie, writing a novel is tough. But if you’re here, I assume you know that and you want to write one anyway. You want to know how to get past the planning stage and onto writing your story. Well, uncap your pens and pull up a blank…

How Do You Finish a Book? I’ve gotten asked that question a dozen times. “I have lots of great ideas,” some people say, “but I can’t seem to get them on paper.” Others give up: “I keep getting stuck! How do you stay motivated enough to finish?” Each novel is unique. Some you should write back…