Escalating Stakes Stack the Odds
Book Three of my fantasy series features an impossible mission, while escalating stakes stack the odds against my protagonists. Over […]
Characters Outside their Fictional World
If you take your characters outside their fictional world, do they still function as compelling, relatable characters? Drop them into
Restoring a Deleted Scene.
Editing is a strange process, especially when you find yourself restoring a deleted scene.
Hidden from the Reader’s View
A vital consideration in plotting your story: what is hidden from the reader’s view? Author and coach Susan deFreitas posed
Science Fiction Writers’ Week 2024
ProWritingAid’s Science Fiction Writers’ Week 2024 runs September 9-13 for aspiring sci-fi authors everywhere.
Make Inciting Incidents Happen Sooner
Forget the old ‘rules:’ make inciting incidents happen sooner. The same conclusion I reached over a year ago came from
The Badly-Plotted Deus Ex
How many stories fall into the badly-plotted Deus Ex Machina ending? A miraculous resolution to a seemingly doom-laden ending, the
How to Escalate a Series
It’s a common writing challenge: how to escalate a series. How do you create a bigger ‘bang’ for books two,
Mix Short and Long sentences
Apparently authors are supposed to mix short and long sentences to captivate the audience. Recently, a writing tool accused me
National Book Lovers Day 2024
Discover the joy of reading on National Book Lovers Day 2024, which happens to fall on Friday 9 August. What