Starting Your Scenes with a Bang!
Openings are a science unto themselves, be they openings for an entire book, for a chapter, or for a scene….
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7 Tips to Avoid Overwriting
Repetition. Redundancy. Useless words. All fiction writers fall into the trap of overwriting. We’re lured by the desire to be…
Essential Fiction-Writing Tools of the Trade
This is a reprint of a post printed seven years ago. If you’re a fiction writer, you need to get…
The Perils of Purple Prose
This post is an excerpt from the book 5 Editors Tackle the 12 Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing. Robin Patchen…
3 Ways to Ramp Up Your Fiction Pacing and Tension
Strong pacing and tension are critical in a fictional story, but they’re some of the hardest elements to understand and…
The Art of Masterful Fiction Dialogue
Writing great dialogue is probably the hardest skill fiction writers need to acquire. If you’ve tried your hand at it,…
Description Errors That Result from POV Limitations
It’s important for writers to convey the description of setting and characters through the POV character’s eyes and emotions. But…
4 Key Ways to Improve Tension and Pacing in Your Novel
Pacing and tension aren’t always easy for writers to assess in their scenes. How can you tell if your scene…
Showing Your Scenes through Your Characters’ Senses
One of the reasons readers willingly immerse themselves in a story is to be transported. Whether it’s to another planet,…
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