Writing Tips and Tools Archives

How Strategic Reading Can Unravel a Novel Knot

February 17, 2017
Staff Writer
Help with Characters, Push Your Imagination, Stuck? Discouraged?, Writing Tips and Tools
2 Comments

By Rachel Garner, Staff Writer Reading is supposed to be one of the writer’s major tools, and I was utilizing it: I read a lot. I had all the tools I’d been told to gather. But still I hesitated. What was I missing?

How to Write Battle Scenes When You’re Not into Battles

February 9, 2017
Student Contributor
Guest posts, Push Your Imagination, Stuck? Discouraged?, Writing Tips and Tools
1 Comment

By Avrie Roberts, Guest Contributor If you’re non-military minded, like me, the thought of writing battle scenes makes you inwardly groan. Maybe also like me, you hate every attempt you’ve made at writing those scenes. You can get away with not including warfare in some stories, but what happens when you can’t avoid it any longer?

Story Diversity: Creating Complex Characters

January 19, 2017
Staff Writer
Culture, Help with Characters, Push Your Imagination, Self-editing Tips, Writing Tips and Tools
2 Comments

By Gabrielle Schwabauer, Staff Writer One of the most beautiful elements of being a writer is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes, to imagine what it might be like to be someone with fears, challenges, and desires very different from your own.

Challenging the Mental Default: Reasons to Fire Your Muse

December 27, 2016
Staff Writer
Guest posts, Help with Characters, Push Your Imagination, Self-editing Tips, Writing Tips and Tools
3 Comments

By Gabrielle Schwabauer, Staff Writer Your original perception of a character is not set in stone. If they're boring you, or if they feel too much like you, or if they're stagnant in the story, you need to make a conscious decision to change them. Simple as that!

Unforeseen Endings & Other Gifts of a Flexible Novel Outline

December 2, 2016
Daniel Schwabauer
Daniel's Writing Log, Push Your Imagination, Self-editing Tips, Stuck? Discouraged?, The Writing Life, Writing Tips and Tools
1 Comment

Daniel Schwabauer Outlines aren’t the only way to bring shape to a story. A bad outline will drive you compulsively in the wrong direction. Instead of giving advice, it will give commands. It will tell you to write what it summarizes, regardless of how the story has changed in your mind during the telling. “I am the story,” a bad outline will say. And if you listen to it, your story will be bad too.