The Final Battle: How to Deliver a Satisfying Climax (Without Leaving Readers Numb)
Let’s be brutally honest: if your final battle fizzles, your entire novel collapses like a bad soufflé. You can...
Derek MurphyAuthor of 35 Articles
studies the art and craft of writing to inspire joy.
The Second Pinch Point: The Darkest Moment Before the Storm
By this stage, your protagonist has fought battles, stumbled, and maybe even scored a few small wins. They’ve moved...
Writer’s Block Sucks: A Real-World Guide to Breaking Free (Without the Woo-Woo)
Writer’s block is a cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less real. You know the feeling: you...
Burnout, Block, and Boredom: How to Write When Your Brain Feels Like a Dumpster Fire
I once spent an entire afternoon staring at a single paragraph—an angry little block of text that refused to...
The Midpoint Shift: Why Passive Characters Kill Stories
I once slogged through the first half of a novel that started off brilliantly—there was a murder, an eccentric...
The First Pinch Point: The First Real Battle & Raising the Stakes
The first act of a novel is all about disruption—the protagonist’s life is thrown off course, they’re...