Craft and mindset tips for authors: November 9, 2026

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

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

• Start here to cut 10,000 words from your memoir: Editor Lisa Cooper Ellison understands the emotional attachment that writers have for their full drafts and offers some specific techniques to use — and mindsets to adopt — when you're told your memoir is too long (Jane Friedman). 

• The five stages of grief when killing your darlings: Author Sara Z. Carson shares her emotional journey during a recent round of editing that took her novel from 166,000 words down to 100,000 (Writer's Digest).

• The secret to believable character arcs: K.M. Weiland explains that characters can't grow into someone completely different; they can only change in ways that still align with who they were at the beginning, and she provides five steps to help you depict that (Helping Writers Become Authors).

• Respecting authentic female experiences: Author Suzanne Mattaboni shares how she and other female authors have had to push back against advice to water down or flatten their fictional women to make them seem more palatable (Women Writers, Women's Books).

• The power of anticipation: C.S. Lakin explains that anticipation in fiction works best when readers' minds can leap forward to specific possible scenarios, based on what they already know about characters, and offers some questions to address in the lead-up to enhance anticipation (Live Write Thrive). 

• Questions that keep readers turning pages: Lakin also explores the psychology of curiosity and unpacks why you must give readers something meaningful to wonder about, rather than simply withholding key information (Live Write Thrive).