Welcome to my ten-part series where we’ll be going through the ten basics of storytelling as outlined in my guidebook The 10 Lost Elements of Storytelling – a book you can get for free by subscribing to my newsletter! In these posts, we’ll be going over the basics of these storytelling elements, but my guidebook is more detailed … Continue reading Why Your Book Will Fail Without Good Characters: Basic Storytelling Elements Part 3
book writing
The Art of Starting Small
Want to help me get a standing desk? Check out the details in the donation box below the post and read my stories on Vocal! If you want to write but don't know where to start, it's best to begin by breaking things up into smaller pieces. Having a 5,000 words a day goal and the … Continue reading The Art of Starting Small
Writing a Book Isn’t Hard
Want to help me get a standing desk? Check out the details in the donation box below the post and read my stories on Vocal! At least - it's not as hard as you think. Before we jump in, I want to say thank you to everyone for bearing with me during the blog's brief hiatus. … Continue reading Writing a Book Isn’t Hard
Don’t Lose Readers Halfway Through a Book
Want to help me get a standing desk? Check out the details in the donation box below the post and read my stories on Vocal! Some say the beginning of a book is the most difficult to master. Others say it's the end. I say it's the middle. Though I can't find any statistics on this, … Continue reading Don’t Lose Readers Halfway Through a Book
Grammar Guide: Are Fragments “Cool” Now?
Want to help me get a new desk chair? Check out the details in the donation box below the post and read my stories on Vocal! Fragments. We've been taught that they're evil from our very first class in school. But are they really as bad as everyone says? Writing rules nowadays are more lax than … Continue reading Grammar Guide: Are Fragments “Cool” Now?
3 Tabs I Always Have Open
Project Pea word count: 13,063 I hardly ever have more than one tab open. I'd call myself a fairly disorganised person most of the time, and yet when it comes to certain things like internet tabs, I can't stand keeping more than one thing open at a time. I just about explode every time my … Continue reading 3 Tabs I Always Have Open
Save the Cat! and Hero’s Journey and 5 Commandments, Oh My! – Which Story Method Should You Use?
It seems like everyone is coming out with a new method to write stories nowadays. Do a quick search on the web and you'll get millions of results, all telling you that one way is best. Hero's Journey is the tried and true method, focusing on the main character. Save the Cat! is perfect for … Continue reading Save the Cat! and Hero’s Journey and 5 Commandments, Oh My! – Which Story Method Should You Use?
A Setback…but With a Bright Side
Well, I might as well just come out with it: I'm pushing back my finishing date for Project Pea. Again. Sometimes, it seems like this WIP has been nothing but headaches. I can't seem to get a firm grasp on it, like it just keeps slipping through my fingers. I keep wanting to get frustrated … Continue reading A Setback…but With a Bright Side
The Art of Never Giving Up
Writing a novel is hard. We probably all know this, and yet, many of us set out to accomplish this mighty feat. Isn't it amazing? But when you're in the middle of writing a book, sometimes it doesn't feel so amazing. I've been on a rollercoaster with my WIP, "Project Pea," over the past 15 … Continue reading The Art of Never Giving Up
Writing Pet Peeves: Incorrect Speaker Tags
Is it just me, or does it drive anyone else crazy when a writer uses incorrect speaker tags? We use speaker tags for two reasons. First and foremost, we use them to indicate who is speaking. The secondary—but not strictly necessary—function is to indicate how the dialogue is being spoken. What a speaker tag does … Continue reading Writing Pet Peeves: Incorrect Speaker Tags
The Story Canvas 