Helping Writers Become Authors

How to transform imposter syndrome for writers from an enemy into a tool for growing yourself throughout the journey of the writing life.

Here are five places in your story where you can use your character's shadows to create amazing complexity and thematic resonance.

"Shadow theory" is one of the most intuitive tools a writer can use to identify the contrasting elements that create complex characters.

Four reasons why the dismissive statement "it's just a story" is not only erroneous, but one of humanity's most the dangerous lies.

Step-by-step guide to finding the right book cover designer, preparing for the design process, and achieving an effective collaboration.

Discover the versatile and effective technique of the backstory drip by learning four techniques for revealing backstory in your story.

Backstory techniques are crucial to the success of any story. Backstory-as-story and alternating timelines are two possible approaches.

Learn how to use four specific backstory techniques to share character histories with your audience, starting with prologues and flashbacks.

When "good writing" strikes its steel upon the flint of archetypes, there is a sudden unity of truth between author and reader.

Learn how organic themes arise from plot (and vice versa) and specifically how to recognize five important elements of an organic theme.

Learning how to write literary fiction can be helpful not only in writing the genre itself, but in raising the vibration on any type of story.

Learning how to write mystery stories involves the most impressive trick of all: outsmarting readers while still playing fair with the clues.

Learning how to write historical fiction requires the skills to a well-drawn story, with the added responsibility of evoking times gone by.

Learning how to write romance requires both strong technique and the courage to write vulnerably about this integral part of life.

Fantasy combines imagination and innovation with deep roots in archetype and myth. Here are five tips for how to write fantasy.

Making a return to writing after a long time away can feel overwhelming or even bewildering. Here are five tips to set you up for success.

If you currently feel your story isn't working, double-check you've ticked these six important boxes in writing a cohesive story that works.

Long-term writer's block can be scary and confusing. Here are six important lessons to help you through the experience.

I share with you 5 gifts from a year of healing, in hopes you may also find them healing or inspiring in your own journey into the New Year.

Check out some of my favorite books from 2022 in three categories: Fiction, Writing How-To, and General Non-Fiction.

Discover important ingredients, ideas, and tools to help you tell your stories even in situations that may not be the best places to write.

Examines why negative reviews of your book may be impacting you and how to re-center your perspective afterwards.

Creating unique character voices is one of the great challenges of writing fiction. Here are nine considerations and five tips for creating yours.

Explores nine negative character arcs in the Enneagram personality theory, including the thematic Truths the characters are missing.

Explore nine positive character arcs in the Enneagram personality theory, including the Lie each character starts out believing.

Do you need personal experience to write about something? Turns out there are four ways to "know" something, and experience is just one.

Here are seven tips for how to add complexity to your story without crossing the line into unwanted complications.

You want your story to be complex, not complicated. Is your story too complicated? Here are nine important things to think about.

One of the most important keys to creating good fiction is understanding how to write emotional scenes in a way that feels genuine.

A closer look at the mechanics of structural timing. What is it? Why is it important? And how precise does it have to be?

Not all beta readers are created equal. Just as you can learn to be a better writer, you can also learn to be a better beta reader.

How you structure a story with multiple main characters will depend on which type of plot you're working with.

Discover the pros and cons of opening your story in medias res (or "in the middle" of action) and use these tips to refine your use of it.

Is opening your story in medias res compatible with the Three-Act Structure? The secret is in understanding how the First Act functions.

If your story suffers from cardboard characters, it probably also suffers from plot contrivances. Good news: if you fix one, you fix both.

In many ways, the New Normal World of a story's Resolution is what successfully completes the context of the entire story.

The Underworld of a Story's Third Act is symbolically important for creating powerful and realistic change with your characters and plot.

Writers can use the metaphoric Adventure World of a story's Second Act to better understand this crucial part of story structure.

Authors need to understand the four "worlds" represented within a story's structure, the first of which is the Normal World of the First Act.

If you want to deepen the complexity of your story's theme, one tool you can employ is Robert McKee's thematic square.

Use these six ways to find your best ideas for writing your book, as you cultivate, channel, and honor your deeper inspiration.

Examines the role of the antagonist in the second half of a story's structure--the Second Pinch Point through the Resolution.

The major plot beats in a story are interwoven with the protagonist's journey. But what is the role of the antagonist in story structure?

Should writers make it a habit to write every day? Here are five pros of writing every day, as well as five potential cons.

Writing a second novel can often be surprisingly harder than the first one. Check out six challenges sophomore writers often face.

Ask these important questions to make sure the passage of time in a story is strengthening rather than weakening its narrative power.

Here are six important considerations to keep in mind when amping up your story's most important scenes--its set-piece scenes.

The question of "how to know when you're a successful author?" offers some obvious answers--and yet the subject is far more complex.

When should you take a break from writing? And once you've taken that step, what in heaven's name are you going to do with yourself?

Creating an amazing supporting cast that can offer important relationship dynamics in fiction will also help develop your protagonist.