I recently opened a side business for developmental editing since I love dissecting stories and finding ways to make them stronger. Many authors have supplemental income because writing books is not always a lucrative business. While I think that is Read more
In the past, I’ve gone over the two functions of scenes and the three secrets of scenes, but today I want to talk about a scene’s cycle. A scene is the basic unit of story. By putting together multiple scenes, Read more
Every now and then, you find a book that really sticks with you. It connects with who you are. It resonates. But why? And how do you make your book do that for your readers? Today I want to discuss Read more
If you want to publish a book for the world to discover, you cannot bury yourself in your writing and then pop up into the world when it’s ready to be published. You have to be mindful of what is Read more
Let’s dive into character development once more for our Character Under A Microscope series and talk about how your characters receive and show affection for each other. It’s commonly accepted that there are five love languages for people in the Read more
MacGuffin, sometimes spelled McGuffin, is a term used by screenwriters for something that gets the plot rolling but doesn’t have significance itself. This occurs almost always in thrillers, but it’s also present in most genres. Today, we are going to Read more
I feel like I’ve read a million articles on how to do a book launch for a new release, and yet I still don’t feel like I have a clear picture of it. Despite the generic advice out there on Read more
When you write in any point of view that isn’t omniscient, you get to write a story through the eyes of a biased character. Every word of the book is filtered through the POV character’s eyes. The best part is Read more
After talking about tropes, I want to take it one step further and discuss cliches. Our world is full of them, but they are often not welcome in our literature. Cliches are overused opinions that most people find common enough Read more
Tropes are a highly debated topic in the writing world. Some love them. Some hate them. Yet tropes are a powerful tool in stories as long as they aren’t overdone to the point of being cliches. Let’s start by defining Read more