Worldbuilding Tips – Building Your World

Worldbuilding is one of my favorite parts of storytelling, and if you’re a fantasy or sci-fi author, it’s absolutely essential. As a lover of worldbuilding, I’m going to share a few tips. Disclaimer, these are all based on my personal experiences and opinions.  One: Read The Greats It’s important to read books with great worldbuilding...

Acing Character Voice – Writing Advice

Character voice is extremely important, no matter the story. Character voice, particularly in POV characters, is how a character sounds to the reader. The narration is distinctly theirs, recognizable through patterns of thoughts and use of language as well as tone. Every character has a different way of thinking, a different perspective on the world,...

Setting Reasonable Goals – Writing Advice

I love setting goals for my writing. Goals keep me on track, keep me accountable, and make me feel like I’m making progress. Whether you are participating in something like Camp NaNo or not, you need to know how to set reasonable goals for your writing.  One: Know Your Story.  To set a goal for...

Character Arcs: Examples From Mistborn

I group character arcs into two main types, with one being external (physical changes like gaining abilities or growing stronger) and the other being internal. In this post, I’m going to be talking about internal arcs. Also, for internal arcs, there are positive arcs and negative arcs. Vin, the main character from the Mistborn trilogy,...

Starting Over and Giving Up – Writing Advice

I spent the last several weeks working on a sequel to a story I finished back in May. I was 40,000 words in and only a few chapters from the climax when I had an epiphany: This wasn’t the sequel I wanted to write. Just as I was planning to finish the book, I was...

Editing: After The First Draft – Writing Advice

I know the first time I finished a first draft, I didn’t really know what to do. I knew I needed to edit, but I didn’t know exactly how to go about that. Now, I know. Here’s one thing you should know before you start: Draft Order. Draft One is your first draft. Draft Two...

Writing First Person – Writing Advice

First person is probably my personal favorite and I’ve spent a long time writing in it. First person involves getting inside the main character’s mind and telling the story from their POV, telling it from their eyes and with their thoughts and placing the reader inside the mind of the character. Famous examples of first...

How To Write A Scene

Scenes are the bites that make up your novel, small pieces of the story building up to weave a full narrative. Without scenes, your story would be an endless narrative much too long for a book, where every detail stays in despite not being necessary for the story. And without well crafted scenes, your novel...

How To Write A Novel

Writing a novel is a big task, and although so many people want to write one, they often don’t know how or where to start. Or if they manage to write a first draft, they don’t know where to go from there. I’ve just finished writing my tenth first draft, and have several second, third,...

Learning Story Beats Through Audiobooks

I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks lately, and through listening I’ve come to a better understanding of story beats. In reading, because it takes me so long or because I’m just not paying attention to the length of the story or where I’m at, I struggle to notice similarities in stories regarding story...