Helping Writers Become Authors

Explores nine negative character arcs in the Enneagram personality theory, including the thematic Truths the characters are missing.

Explore nine positive character arcs in the Enneagram personality theory, including the Lie each character starts out believing.

Do you need personal experience to write about something? Turns out there are four ways to "know" something, and experience is just one.

Here are seven tips for how to add complexity to your story without crossing the line into unwanted complications.

You want your story to be complex, not complicated. Is your story too complicated? Here are nine important things to think about.

One of the most important keys to creating good fiction is understanding how to write emotional scenes in a way that feels genuine.

A closer look at the mechanics of structural timing. What is it? Why is it important? And how precise does it have to be?

Not all beta readers are created equal. Just as you can learn to be a better writer, you can also learn to be a better beta reader.

How you structure a story with multiple main characters will depend on which type of plot you're working with.

Discover the pros and cons of opening your story in medias res (or "in the middle" of action) and use these tips to refine your use of it.

Is opening your story in medias res compatible with the Three-Act Structure? The secret is in understanding how the First Act functions.

If your story suffers from cardboard characters, it probably also suffers from plot contrivances. Good news: if you fix one, you fix both.

In many ways, the New Normal World of a story's Resolution is what successfully completes the context of the entire story.

The Underworld of a Story's Third Act is symbolically important for creating powerful and realistic change with your characters and plot.

Writers can use the metaphoric Adventure World of a story's Second Act to better understand this crucial part of story structure.

Authors need to understand the four "worlds" represented within a story's structure, the first of which is the Normal World of the First Act.

If you want to deepen the complexity of your story's theme, one tool you can employ is Robert McKee's thematic square.

Use these six ways to find your best ideas for writing your book, as you cultivate, channel, and honor your deeper inspiration.

Examines the role of the antagonist in the second half of a story's structure--the Second Pinch Point through the Resolution.

The major plot beats in a story are interwoven with the protagonist's journey. But what is the role of the antagonist in story structure?

Should writers make it a habit to write every day? Here are five pros of writing every day, as well as five potential cons.

Writing a second novel can often be surprisingly harder than the first one. Check out six challenges sophomore writers often face.

Ask these important questions to make sure the passage of time in a story is strengthening rather than weakening its narrative power.

Here are six important considerations to keep in mind when amping up your story's most important scenes--its set-piece scenes.

The question of "how to know when you're a successful author?" offers some obvious answers--and yet the subject is far more complex.