Posted on 07/28/2021 at 10:36 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Book coach Susan DeFreitas sees most novels begin one of three ways: with a character idea, with a plot idea,...
Posted on 07/16/2021 at 01:19 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Readers love to joke about how cruel their authors are in tormenting or killing their favorite characters. But if you...
Posted on 07/07/2021 at 01:03 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
It’s easy to conflate pacing with plot-development speed in a novel. Donald Maass is here (okay, he's at Writer Unboxed)...
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...
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...
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....
Posted on 05/15/2021 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
At its simplest, a mystery novel is a puzzle. But as Zara Altair points out, there are certain features to...
Posted on 05/13/2021 at 11:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
We’ve shared advice on writing historical fiction — in which everything has definitely happened — and on writing science fiction/fantasy...
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...
Posted on 05/07/2021 at 01:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
The May 2021 edition of Desmond’s Drops is up on Writer Unboxed. This month’s topics are how to avoid cliched...
