As Phil notes in this episode, “character voice” can make or break your manuscript. It’s one of the most common reasons for manuscript rejection. So maybe it’s a little bit […]
Characters without agency always feel a little off. You wonder why they’re not engaging, why the story is moving without them. Why they spend so much time reacting instead of […]
Okay, listen up. Websites are so last episode. Blogs are out. Well, they’re not totally out, but Phil is pretty sure they’re out. You know what’s not out? I’ll give […]
You know about websites. You use them all the time! In this episode we talk about why you might (or might not) need a personal website, what might go on […]
Synopses are the worst. This is publishing’s worst-kept secret. Who are we kidding, it’s not even that much of a secret to begin with. Almost nobody likes writing them (you […]
We continue our series about Your Online Presence with a sneak peek into the world of Search Engine Optimization, for writers! Which is really just a fancy way to say […]
This week, we’re talking about something that can be a touchy subject around certain circles on the internet. No, not Twilight fanfiction. Our topic today is book piracy. And libraries. […]
The information age is here! And so is the oversharing age and the food pics on Instagram age. This week, we’re kicking off a series on “Your Online Presence” by […]
Our next episode in “Bad Takes from the Internet” looks more closely at the idea that hiring a freelance editor before you query will get you requests for fulls and offers […]
Ah, the Internet. When it’s good, we get cat videos, communities full of well-spoken friends with smart opinions, and great articles about when to use an em dash versus a […]
The last episode in our Goal / Motivation / Conflict series is here. It’s so hard for me to see my characters suffer; some of our other hosts don’t quite […]
What drives us? What drives our characters? Why do we do the things we do and want the things we want? This is not just some overthought Livejournal entry! This […]
Today we’re taking a deeper dive into character goals. Whether it’s goal posts or squad goals or something a little larger-than-life, our characters need to strive for something. We talk […]
Today we embark on a short series diving into the “GMC” we (and Jo) are always talking about. Goal (what your character wants) Motivation (why they want it) Conflict (what’s […]
When it’s fully realized, a setting can feel like a character. It can draw in the reader, it can have its own dramatic arc, it can make the whole story […]
Without characters, our stories are … a series of events. Those events are not unfortunate until they matter to someone. With that in mind, this week why dig in to […]
Plot drives our stories and causes our characters — and those of us writing them — all kinds of headaches. Today we talk about what plot is, how it shapes […]
Today marks just beyond the halfway point of NaNoWriMo, but we’re skipping ahead a few pages and talking about what, exactly, we do after we write “THE END” on a […]
It was the best of drafts, it was the worst of drafts. You can’t fix a blank piece of paper, but you can’t expect your first draft to be amazing, […]
Once you’ve got an idea all squared away, how do you cross that weird divide between “I have an idea” and “I have started to write a book?” With an […]