Too many authors in the world fail to understand what a book publisher does and does not do for its authors, and it's something that leads to major issues with authors and publishers, and everyone walks away frustrated from the experience and feeling as though their expectations were not met. This lack of understanding is...Read More

To those of you who know nothing about tabletop games, let me start by explaining the most basic concept of them: you get together with friends to engage in a collaborative, largely improvisational storytelling experience.Read More

In school, we are taught about "person" in terms of language. I, you, he/she/them--first, second, third. Right? Okay. With that refresher out of the way, let's take a look at the way these are related to POV.Read More

your antagonists to be exactly as robust as your main characters using the principles we looked at last week: flaws, strengths, and desires. These ideas work a little differently for the antagonists than they do protagonists, however, so let's dig into that a little and see what the differences are.Read More

racter doesn't mean you need to know their blood type, childhood nicknames, and the name of every romantic partner they've ever had (unless it's relevent to the story). Creating a realistic character means they have to act like a human being--which means they'll have flaws, strengths, and desires.Read More

In last week's blog, we talked about how to structure a series using the Beat Sheet by using the example of the first season of Avatar: the Last Airbender (AtLA). I laid the whole season out using the Beat Sheet to demonstrate how the season followed the structure beat for beat and going through where...Read More

Since we've been talking about the structure of individual novels this month, and I mentioned the way act three of a book can tie into writing a series, it's time I look at what it means to write a series and how we can use the three act structure and the Beat Sheet.Read More

Act three of your novel is your thrilling conclusion, the place where the action hits its peak and the final push toward the conclusion. In a lot of works, act three is where everything is at fever pitch, and you're hitting the point of no return. So what do you need to include in order...Read More

In this fifteen thousand or so words of your opener, you need to: introduce the main character(s?), introduce the setting, and introduce the main conflict. These are all vital parts of the story and none should be skimped on. While they can be accomplished in brief early in the first act, you need to give...Read More

The dreaded, the terrible, the unthinkable second act. Oh, how writers of all kinds everywhere loathe it. It's the place your pacing, story, and steam tends to wither, and you're left staring down the barrel of "well now what?" There is, however good news.Read More