4 First Chapter Fails: How To Keep Readers Hooked (Without Screwing It Up)
First chapters are brutal. They have to do everything—hook the reader, establish the protagonist, set up the world, hint...
Plotting Your Novel: Three-Act, Four-Act, and Every Other Story Structure That Works (and Why You Need One)
(In Which We Discover That Story Structure Is Your Friend, Not Your Dictator) There’s a moment in every writer’...
How to Start Your Story: The Ordinary World, the Hook, and the Art of Making Readers Care
You’ve got about three seconds—maybe a sentence or two—to convince a reader not to toss your book...
The Inciting Incident: How to Create an Unforgettable Call to Adventure
A character’s life is rolling along—maybe not perfectly, maybe not happily, but predictably—until suddenly, everything changes. The...
Storytelling Is a Science (And Here’s How to Hack It)
I used to think storytelling was pure magic—some ethereal force that separates the Tolkiens of the world from the...
From Raw to "Rawr": Storytelling Basics to Turn Rough Drafts into Riveting Reads
Stories are magic. Not the fluffy, Hallmark-card variety where everything is bright and lovely, but the kind that drags you...