#5onFri: Five Things to Do Before Writing Your First Book

You’re excited. You’ve decided to take on a new project. The idea has been stirring in your head for years and you’re finally going to do it. You’re going to write a book— Now what? Writing a book is a huge undertaking. It took ten years and countless revisions to get my own book published…. Read more »

Choosing the Right Job for Your Character

As human beings, our work is very important. Choosing a career is one of the biggest decisions we make in life, and we often put a ton of time and energy into it. But what about our characters’ jobs? How much thought do we put into that? We authors recognize the importance of strong characterization,… Read more »

How to Write a Romantic Comedy Novel, Pt. 1

The time is upon you to put pen to paper and write the next great romantic comedy, an ingenious prose worthy of the Pulitzer-Prize in Comedic Literature. (Well, if there was such an award.) You marked your calendar and thought this day would never arrive. It is a long weekend devoid of plans, perhaps a… Read more »

Editing Our Bias: How to Refer to Race in Literature

With discussions and movements surrounding racial equality growing every day, writers around the world are having to step back and look at the world we love so much. From a lack of Black and Own Voices writers on bestseller tables to everyday racist and bigoted terms that sneak below our editing radar, we writers and… Read more »

Cozy to Cold-Blooded: Women and True Crime Podcast Fiction

Women comprise a large percentage of true crime fans. The most common theory behind this popularity seems to be that women read and watch true crime to face their fears.  As with many facets of real life, this phenomenon made its way into fiction. For the last few years, books documenting women solving cold cases… Read more »

Story Grid Scene Analysis: Something Borrowed

If you’ve been following my last two articles on scene analysis, you know how valuable I believe it is for writers to understand how to determine if a scene either advances the plot and/or develops the character(s). This is especially important if it is the opening chapter of a novel. Before I became a Certified… Read more »