It's so exhilarating to finally reach the point when you’re done polishing your manuscript and are ready to take your story to the next step. First, you should stop and celebrate. But once the giggles and jumping and virtual high-fives with friends over social...
Many of you probably don’t know this about me, but before I became a professional editor and while I was finishing up my English Literature degree, I had a part‑time job as an escape room gamemaster. I not only love storytelling but also roleplaying and puzzles, so...
What makes for a good story idea? In their most basic form, all stories have been done before. Girl meets boy? It’s been done hundreds of times. Boy goes to wizard school? Ditto. The chosen one must save the world? You can find that one from ancient Greece to the...
One of the most common pieces of writing advice is to “show, don’t tell.” It’s true that many new writers struggle with their balance of showing and telling, usually telling what they ought to show. But the advice to “show, don’t tell” is far too simplistic. If you...
So, what exactly is a macro and why would you want one? A macro is a custom feature that you can add to Microsoft Word. Most macros are tools that can help you edit your work. Do you wish that Word could compile a list of all the proper names in your document so...
I’m sure you’ve heard the advice that your first chapter needs to hook your reader. But once you have your opening hook, how do you make sure you don’t lose your momentum in the middle? How do you avoid writing boring scenes? The secret to writing a story that...
Readers are always looking for a unique and compelling story to read. We also live in a culture that values uniqueness over conformity. Yet genres are all about writing with the common characteristics and rules of a specific story form. So, given the cultural value...
Agents and publishing houses judge manuscripts based on how unique and compelling the story is. Why? Because that is how readers decide whether or not to buy a book. Readers want certain familiar hallmarks (that is, genre conventions). But they also want the story...
To include a prologue or to not include a prologue, that is the question. Prologues are these tempting things that appear sophisticated but are usually unnecessary, unhelpful, or both. It is so easy to write a bad prologue that I’ve split this topic into two posts:...