Character Identity Crisis: Using Inner Conflict to Build Compelling Character Arcs When Your Character Doesn’t Know Who They Are The most gripping inner conflict often isn’t about choosing between two things—it’s… Read more
Plotting with shadows A frequently asked question authors get is some variation of: How do you write? What is your writing process? Entire… Read more
The Difference Between a Story Idea and a Story That Actually Survives the Draft I have a folder on my computer called “Story Ideas” with over sixty entries in it. Premises. What-ifs. Characters I… Read more
I Tried Writing Every Day and Then Tried Not Writing Every Day For about three months last year, I wrote every single day. Didn’t miss once. I had a streak going and… Read more
The Smallest Writing Habit That Quietly Changed Everything for Me I should say upfront that this isn’t going to be a dramatic story. No life-changing transformation. No moment where everything… Read more
I Rewrote the Same Scene Five Different Ways and Here’s What Changed Each Time A few weeks ago, I got completely stuck on a scene. Two characters, a kitchen, a conversation that needed to… Read more
What Happens When You Let a Character Make a Bad Choice on Purpose I was about three chapters into a short story when I realized my protagonist was about to do something incredibly… Read more
Writing Scenes I Know Will Never Make the Final Story (And Why I’m Doing It Anyway) Last week I spent two hours writing a conversation between my protagonist and her dead grandmother. It takes place in… Read more
The First Draft I Was Afraid to Re-Read and What It Taught Me About Fear in Writing There’s a document on my computer I haven’t opened in eight months. I know exactly where it is. I could… Read more
I Tried Writing Without a Plot for 30 Days and Here’s What Actually Happened So there I was, stuck again. Just completely stuck. You know that feeling where you’ve got your document open, maybe… Read more
