The Hero’s Journey Conundrum: How to Break Free from Formulaic Storytelling Somewhere in your writing education—maybe in a workshop, maybe in a book, maybe just scrolling through writing Twitter at three… Read more
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
Why Your Character’s Inner Conflict is Killing Your Story (And How to Fix It) The Invisible Problem Readers Can’t Name Your story has tension. There’s action, stakes, antagonists. But something feels… flat. Readers get… Read more
Overcoming the Curse of Infinite Plot Twists: Strategies for Writers Introduction Plot twists are the spice of storytelling. This guide will help you navigate the minefield of plot twists and… 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 Quiet Moment When a Story Finally Starts Feeling Real There’s a moment in some drafts, not all of them, but some, where something shifts. It’s hard to describe. Nothing… 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
Why Some of My Favorite Sentences End Up Getting Deleted There’s a sentence I wrote about six months ago that I still think about sometimes. It described the way a… 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
The Awkward Middle of a Story and Why I Always Want to Quit There There’s a specific point in every story I write where I start to believe I’ve made a terrible mistake. It… Read more
