What Defines Our Story? Drive vs. Focus
Ever feel like popular writing advice doesn’t apply to your story? Defining our story’s mix of drive vs. focus might help us know when advice is a bad fit.
Pin It
Making a Big Revision? Stitching Our Story’s Rips Together
It’s time for another post as a Resident Writing Coach over at Writers Helping Writers, and this time we’re talking about how to stitch together the pieces of our story after a big revision.
Pin It
Our Story’s Essence: What’s the Story We Want to Tell?
Last week, we talked about discovering the essence of our character, but what about the essence of our story. What makes a story idea the one we want to tell? And why does understanding our story’s essence matter?
Pin It
Happy New Year! Get a Fresh Start
With the New Year, I like the idea of fresh starts, so I’m sharing a tip from Twitter on how we can draft our story in a different font than usual to help us see everything with fresh eyes.
Pin It
Want to Break Writing Rules? Gain Readers’ Trust
Just as there are risks to breaking writing rules, there’s risk in emphasizing them too much as well. And what does “strong writing” really mean when it comes to developing our voice?
Pin It
How Can We Get Away with Breaking Writing Rules?
It’s time for another post as a Resident Writing Coach over at Writers Helping Writers, and this time we’re talking about the lessons we can learn from stories that successfully break writing “rules.”
Pin It
How to Level-Up Our Writing — Guest: Maureen Crisp
Do we need to write a million words before we can master the skills of writing? Maureen Crisp, a judge for a major book award with entries from debut and veteran authors, knows what it takes to be a writing master.
Pin It
How Do We Check the Facts in Our Fiction? — Guest: Selina J. Eckert
Fiction has to make more sense than real life, and logic and consistency are required. Selina J. Eckert shares her advice on how to make sure our fiction rings true through fact-checking.
Pin It
Writer Confidence: Do You Self-Reject?
Writers often suffer from self-doubt. We’re not sure if our story idea is interesting enough, if we’re the right person to write our idea. All that self-doubt can lead us to reject ourselves before others do—or before they even can.
Pin It
Your Story’s Promise: Do You Need an Epilogue?
Given reviews about too-abrupt endings, readers might want a sense of closure beyond what authors deliver. Should we use epilogues—or epilogue-like endings—to breach the gap?
Pin It