Craft tips for authors: February 23, 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:

• Crafting a memoir with grit: Author Linda Rhodes explains how she took care to make her personal story resonate with readers, versus depicting herself as an infallible hero (Writer's Digest). 

• Thriller pacing like a pro: Author Tom Markert has a quantifiable method for ensuring that each chapter — and each scene — in his thrillers makes the novel's the stakes clear and compelling to the reader (Writer's Digest).

• Using contradictions to create microtension, part three: This installment of C.S. Lakin's series focuses on the ways that dialogue can feature contradictions and intensify your story (Live Write Thrive). 

• Should you tie up loose ends or leave them open?: K.M. Weiland clarifies what an intentional loose end versus an accidental one is and poses three questions to ask yourself as to whether your story's loose ends should be tied up or left unresolved (Helping Writers Become Authors).

• Five elements for writing novels set across multiple centuries: Author Louise Fein describes how links, transitions, rationale, authenticity, and language tie a multicentury novel together and recommends several example books to study (Writer's Digest). 

• Common mistakes new writers make and how to fix them: Emilie-Noelle Provost reports back from her roles as a developmental editor and literary journal editor on what she sees frequently from less experienced — and even, occasionally, experienced — writers (writer Unboxed).