Engaging story basics: character has a goal, which they want to achieve because of motivation, and while trying to reach it they run into conflict.

Shirley Jump shows us how to make a book so incredibly compelling, the reader can’t put it down, and must stay up until two in the morning to see how it ends.

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy “Not enough conflict” is a phrase I’d wager most writers have heard at some point in their journeys. It’s a complicated term that encompasses more than just a single event in a book, yet we often use it as if a novel has one conflict. We also use it to mean […]

Two days ago, in Part One of this three-part series, I began sharing how to use The Five Thieves of Happiness by John Izzo in our writing to provide inner conflict for our characters. I only had "time" in the first post to share one "thief." In this post I'll share two more. (Why do I […]

Kathryn Craft Turning Whine into Gold Why should anyone pay you for your writing? Few aspiring authors give enough thought to answering this question. It is your key to effective marketing, yet many writers would rather skip the tough questions, whine about discoverability, and resort to gimmicks. Yet I have never bought a novel because […]