by Margie Lawson I confess. I’m in love with the way some authors slip in backstory. I’m not talking chunks of backstory that sit on your page like cement blocks. The kind of blah blah blah that invites readers to skim. I’m talking about little hits of backstory. Those smooth keep-your-story-moving backstory slip-ins. What is […]

Lisa Hall-Wilson   You don’t know what you don’t know, right? That’s part of what makes writing in deep point of view so hard. I have spent years studying this technique and continue to learn more about it. But if you had a place to start maybe you could get started on your own. But […]

Eldred Bird Good stories are built around great characters. If readers don’t identify or sympathize with your protagonist, they’re not going to care enough to come on your character’s journey. We writers generally have a picture in mind when it comes to the characters in our books. We know what our heroes and villains look […]

Lisa Wells Every book needs a dose of laughter. Even hard-core, freak-out scary stuff needs a scene or a sentence or a word intended to allow the reader a moment to breathe out some of the tension you’ve mummified them in for pages and pages and breathe in ease. This post will acquaint you with […]

Angela Ackerman Life can be painful, especially for our characters. In fact, the fallout of an emotionally wounding event such as a car accident, failing to save someone’s life, infertility, or being sent away as a child can derail their life for years (or even decades!) if left unresolved. Not only that, it can change […]