What Does “Plot Reveals Character” Mean?
We might have heard that the purpose of the plot is to reveal character. What does that mean and how can understanding it help our storytelling?
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Writer’s Block? Focus on Stronger Story Goals
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 choose good story goals.
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Story Planning: Leaving Our Options Open
How detailed is too detailed when it comes to planning our story? What can we can learn about leaving our options open as we draft our story?
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Pitching Our Story: Insights from Movie Trailers
When pitching our story, we might struggle with figuring out which elements to focus on. How do we decide what to emphasize in our pitch?
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Worldbuilding Is for Every Story
Everyone understands what worldbuilding is for fantasy, science fiction, historical, etc., but what does worldbuilding mean for contemporary stories?
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Writing Prompts: Helpful? Or a Waste of Time? — Guest: Savannah Cordova
Writing prompts can help with inspiration or creativity, or distract us from the writing we’re “supposed to” do. How can we make them more helpful to us?
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Worldbuilding a Series: Writing without a Plan
Some writers plan their worldbuilding details in advance. Others…not so much. How can we worldbuild when we write a series by the seat of our pants?
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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.
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More Than a Happy Ending: What Makes a Story Uplifting?
The romance genre is often called “aspirational,” but even romances with a happy ending can fail at being uplifting. What other elements contribute to an uplifting story and what can they teach us about other genres?
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Story Tropes: How Do We Twist a Cliché?
Sometimes we’ll hear writing advice like “avoid clichés,” but what does that mean when it comes to story tropes? After all, can’t tropes be helpful? And if so, how do we make them less cliché?
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