Spruce up your writing on Christmas Eve

Still hard at work on Christmas Eve? Whether you're hoping to capture the holiday magic in your writing or are just putting the time away from your day job to good use, we have a collection of tips from the archives that could come in handy.

Sticking to the season 

• Writing tricks to take away from classic Christmas tales 

• Writing lessons to take away from A Christmas Carol

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch's licensing lessons from Die Hard

• A gift to grammar geeks: Analyzing What Child Is This?

• Bestselling authors share tips on writing about other faiths 

Evergreen advice on emotion

• Why and how to choose powerful settings for your scenes 

• Surprise your reader with emotional impact, not just plot twists 

• Here's how you can tell the reader what your character is feeling

• Use your own experiences to make your characters feel real 

• Take the time to engage your reader emotionally 

• Use your own feelings to add emotion to your story 

• Act now to stir emotion in your readers 

• Help your readers feel your characters' emotions 

• Put your emotions to productive use 

• Evoke emotion like Where The Red Fern Grows 

• Creating authentic emotion in your novel

Don't forget about yourself 

• Take care of your mental health

• Why authors shouldn't scoff at self-care 

• How writers can stay mentally strong in times of stress 

• Let go of some tasks to stay healthy