Readers love to be surprised, but they're not fans of being tricked or manipulated. Author John McNally shares his five tips for surprising your readers without it feeling like a trick.
Learn bestselling author MarcyKate Connolly's five-step process for reworking a classic story, including her "fairy tale flip chart." While these lessons are sure to be a great fit for plotters, it should help out pantsers as well.
A strong premise often leads to a strong story. In this post, MG author Fleur Bradley shares her seven tips for developing a compelling middle-grade novel, including advice related to writing for the age group, the gatekeepers, and the kids in all of us.
Bestselling author and creative writing instructor Chris Mooney shares his five rules for writing successful stories that they don't often teach in MFA programs.
This August 1989 Writer's Digest articles encourages writers to say no to their characters—in other words, create compelling conflicts in their stories.
In this article from our March 2020 issue, Larry Brooks explains the 8 facets that make up the premise of a winning story.
Novelist Michelle Cameron explain why she's driven to write Jewish historical fiction and why it's not about the Holocaust.
In this March 2020 interview, the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist weighs in on altering the course of a novel to unfold plot elements more harmoniously and facing rejection from his publisher.
Novelist Wendelin Van Draanen offers advice on how to choose the best story structure for your novels and provides compelling examples from her award-winning books.
If you're having a hard time coming up with what your protagonist does in the middle of your story, it may help you to figure out what your antagonist is doing.
Many authors seek to incorporate contemporary themes and issues into novels that are set in the future. Here, Jay Schiffman offers five ideas to get your started if you're interested in incorporating real-world politics into a futuristic narrative.
You can write a great character sketch, a moving love scene, a thrilling chase, even a heart-clutching murder—but a good story needs more than those elements. It needs plot movement—articulated by pivot points.
Whether you're an outliner or an organic writer—a plotter or a pantser—the solution to almost every plot problem can be found by answering three simple questions.
How do you stop over-plotting your novel? It isn’t easy, and it isn’t pleasant, but the reward for plot discipline can be a lean, compelling narrative that attracts literary agents. Try these tips.
The role of the denouement in literature is easy to comprehend and, once you understand it's definition, you'll be to spot it quite easily in most novels. Here the definition and an example.
BY ELIZABETH SIMS How do the most successful authors of our time construct their stories? The Hero's Adventure. So what is the Hero’s Adventure? You know it already, and you may even have elements of it in the story you’re working on. But I suspect you haven’t yet methodically and thoroughly appropriated it for yourself. Here's what you need to know.
Subplots and multiple points of view make novels longer and more work, but rewards for that effort are there for writer and reader alike—that is, if they are successful. Here's how to pull it off.
Subplots and subtext are two different sub sandwiches on the story menu, and as the chef, you need to grill them up strategically.
Here are tips on how to become more alert to the signals of those groaningly predictable plots and how to avoid them in your stories and novels.
BY ELIZABETH SIMS Whether you’re planning the fabric of a new story or looking to thread depth into one that’s falling flat, try these 7 methods to a tightly woven plot.
