Exploring motives can benefit your YA novel's plot and characters

Posted on 06/08/2021 at 12:49 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

A successful young-adult author once warned: “Teens can sniff a phony at twenty paces.” So, then, who better to take...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Plot / narrative, Writer's Digest, Young adult literature

Static characters: What they are and how to use them

Posted on 06/08/2021 at 09:18 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Dave Chesson acknowledges that static characters may not sound all that interesting, based on their names. But in reality, they...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Dave Chesson (the Kindlepreneur)

6 ways to evoke emotion in your fiction

Posted on 06/07/2021 at 03:06 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Adverbs with dialogue tags and descriptions of body language are obvious ways to convey a character’s emotion. But they’re far...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Jane Friedman, Writing advice

View and describe the world through your character's eyes

Posted on 06/05/2021 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Understanding your character is key to writing him or her as vividly as possible. Bestselling and award-winning author S. K....

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Writer's Digest

Add strategic details to bring your story to life

Posted on 05/25/2021 at 11:05 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Two of the most basic pieces of writing advice are “show, don’t tell” and “write what you know.” That advice...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Jane Friedman, Writer's Digest

A successful mystery novel contains these five features

Posted on 05/23/2021 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Melodie Campbell, as an author of mob-heist novels and a past executive director of Crime Writers of Canada, is quite...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Mystery, Plot / narrative

How using different conflict styles can enhance your fiction

Posted on 05/17/2021 at 11:58 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

As you’ve certainly learned from living in a world with other people, we don’t all approach conflict the same way....

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Plot / narrative, Writer Unboxed

Anne R. Allen: Rethink the definition of an unsympathetic character

Posted on 05/13/2021 at 03:34 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

There’s no shortage of advice on what to consider when creating a protagonist. Anne R. Allen chimes in with a...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Writing advice

Areas to focus on while writing the heroine's journey

Posted on 05/11/2021 at 09:41 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

The hero’s journey is a concept most writers and students of literature are familiar with. But they perhaps haven’t heard...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Joanna Penn, Plot / narrative

Author: Music can help you tune into your characters' emotions

Posted on 04/26/2021 at 12:41 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Author Kim Bullock can remember, so vividly, the ways in which she defined herself through the music she listened to...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Characters, Writer Unboxed