Craft tips for authors: May 4, 2026

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:

• Coping mechanism thesaurus — self-care: Becca Puglisi gives examples of how practicing self-care, as a way to process and handle stress and hurt, can show that your character is growing (Writers Helping Writers).

• I made my characters with tarot card spreads: A.E. Osworth invites her fellow authors to try building characters with the Celtic cross tarot card spread (Writer's Digest).

• Intentional humorists do it on purpose: Karim Shamsi-Basha explains that humor isn't a lucky accident and that it doesn't work when you use it at random, then describes how to find the right situations and setups for your jokes (Writer's Digest).

• The enduring appeal of the gothic in fiction: Author Rosemary Hennigan defines what gothic in fiction means and provides examples of the genre to help you better recognize it (Writer's Digest).

• Secrets for writing page-turners: Liz Adams describes the kinds of secrets your characters might have and how adding a deadline to them will keep your readers from being able to put your book down (Writer's Digest).

• The one big question we all work with in fiction: Author Sara Foster loves the writing advice of, start with a question in mind, not an answer, and unpacks why "what if" works so well as that question (Writer's Digest).