Writers: do yourself a favor and don’t neglect it. — Do you ever find yourself wondering where your story is going? Do you ever struggle to find the deeper conflict between your hero and villain? Is your romance falling flat because your couple gets together too soon or gets along too well? There are no hacks in writing, but there…

Save yourself a headache and win over readers — Ever been reading a book and the ONLY indication you have that you’re nearing the end is that you’re running out of pages? Ever looked back over your story and felt like the climax was just missing something? Nobody hates a weak ending more than… my husband. Because then he…

Fail to answer these, and you’re in for a world of hurt down the line. — Transcript: Knowing your “why” has become a bit of a cliche phrase at this point. “Know your why!” It just means know your reason for doing the thing you’re doing. But there’s so much more to that. When it comes to building your career as an author, whether you ever…

It’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s the right medicine — Writing books is hard. Authors often get stuck on a scene or just feel like something’s off or could be so much stronger, and that’s where I come in with my story consulting services. One of the most common blocks that pushes authors to come see me is this: The…

An easy way to delight your readers — There are certain conventions of fiction that we all know instinctively. There’s the author, the narrator, some characters, the genre. Most writers like the clear delineation between each of these things, so they maintain it. But what happens if they don’t? Let’s take a look at three fun examples. Fwaming. Fwaming is what bwings us togethaw today. If…

How to free yourself by presenting only some of the real you — Stephen King is, presumably, not an axe murderer or even your run-of-the-mill psychopath. And yet, many people I know would be uneasy being in the same room as him. Except it’s not actually him they’re wary of, it’s his alter ego. The vast majority of savvy authors stick to one…