New writing guide for you

The “conflict triangle” will help you write gripping plots and weave powerful themes into your stories — Are you having trouble ratcheting up the tension in a story so your readers don’t lose interest after the first several pages? Or maybe you’re struggling to give your protagonist a convincing character arc where her personality transforms over the course of your story so readers care about what happens…

How to journal effectively — One of the things I love about the start of a new year is beginning a new journal. Journaling is one of my favorite systems for helping me stay accountable and motivated as I work on my goals, tracking my progress on different projects, and inspiring my creativity. In today’s…

How to stay consistent and not give up — We’re already six days into 2022. How are you faring with your New Year’s resolutions? Often, I find I have a burst of energy at the beginning of the year, but, if I’m not careful about how I frame my goals, that motivation can ebb as the months pass and…

How to bring your characters to life — The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite novels. It’s beautifully written, and I often come back to it when I’m looking for techniques and strategies to make my own writing more powerful. Recently, I decided to re-read it, and I was specifically studying how Fitzgerald describes characters. I discovered…

How to set yourself up for writing success in November — National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is nearly here. If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo before, it’s a 30-day challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November. Now, that’s the official challenge, but I love adapting NaNoWriMo to my own writing goals. It’s a fantastic way…

A simple exercise for capturing and developing story ideas — Do you have a fantastic idea for a setting or a character that you think would make an amazing story? Or maybe you want to write a story, but you’re not sure how to come up with an idea? Then this article is for you. Quick note: If you prefer…

Get more out of the books you read — Many famous writers have stressed the importance of reading to become a better writer. Stephen King observed is his memoir On Writing, “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. …

5 powerful character development exercises — When you think of unforgettable characters from books you’ve read, who comes to mind? For me, I might think of Bilbo Baggins heading off on an adventure in Middle Earth or Ebenezer Scrooge being whisked away by the Christmas spirits or Jane Eyre trying to forge her own path in…

Lessons from legendary copywriter Claude C. Hopkins — When you think of the word “copywriter”, you might picture advertising executives like those from the show Mad Men. Copy generally refers to the text in an advertisement: those words that persuade the customer to buy a product or service. But in today’s Internet age we’re all writing copy even…