Let’s be honest: there are a lot of people teaching writing skills online. And in many ways, that’s a good thing. You have so many choices for advice about plot, character, narration… Why spend your time with me?

Another way of asking that question is: what is “character-first writing,” and why should I care about it? What difference does learning this approach make to my writing?

Daniel David Wallace

If you know me, you probably already know why I enjoy this website.

Did you get it yet? That’s right: it’s character-driven storytelling! I think that Daniel David Wallace is spot on in his approach to teaching storytelling. If you’ve been around on the blog, you know just how important characters are to me. Good characters are really the key to storytelling, and this is a rare site that really, truly understands this.

While Daniel doesn’t provide articles on his site, I’ve been subscribed to his email list for a while and I really enjoy what he has to say. He also hosts some great free events (I just attended a fantastic one called “Find Your Reader” a couple weeks ago) and provides a few insightful free courses as well. I encourage you to check it out, poke around on the site, and absolutely subscribe to his newsletter! I can promise you that you’ll learn a lot.

Website Updates: If you haven’t heard yet, this website is going through some changes! This week, I’ll be sharing some of my favourite posts and resources with you as I’m hard at work with a hammer and nails behind the scenes. If you haven’t voted for the new site name yet, click that link above and do it!

Happy writing!
—E.J.

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Photo by Yulia Matvienko on Unsplash