Craft tips for authors: November 14, 2025

The publishing experts we follow have plenty of craft advice to offer. 

Here are the ones that we thought were can't-miss for our authors:

• 5 tips to help you find your memoir's structure: There's no one magic formula for arranging a memoir, so Renee Gilmore lists several options as well as ways to figure out which one is right (Writer's Digest).

• What I got wrong about memoir and what I now understand: Author Ronit Plank shares three misconceptions she had about memoirs and what she now believes instead, in honor of National Memoir Writing Month (Jane Friedman). 

• 8 qualities that will help your protagonist on their journey: Jenny Hansen took a social worker's list of eight qualities that people need in order to be happy and adapted it into a guide for how to depict your character's growth along the way to any happy ending (Writers Helping Writers).

• Mining off-stage movement: Kathryn Craft compares a novel to a dance performance, in that the supporting cast isn't sitting still and silent while the main characters are in motion; check out how you can imagine what the secondary characters are up to and use that to guide your on-page action (Writer Unboxed).

• Insights into the shape of a scene: C.S. Lakin explains her "anchor point" method to drafting and assessing how well a scene propels the character and plot forward (Live Write Thrive).