Tropes are shallow.
“There’s only one bed!”
Great! I love that! But that doesn’t tell me what your story is about. It tells me about a scene and that there’s some sexual tension.
“Morally gray love interests” are a dime a dozen. Let me guess, he also has dark hair and broods a lot?
I. Love. A. Broody. Grumpy. Man. I do!
But tell me what makes him morally gray. Tell me about what makes him appealing despite that moral grayness.
Readers don’t only want to hear about tropes.
Read MorePicture this: You’re in your favorite bookstore. You’re sipping coffee and looking for a new fantasy book to add to your collection.
Are you going to:
A) spend $18 on a hardcover version of A Court of Thorns and Roses (a book you’ve heard of with over 100,000 reviews), or
B) spend more than that on a really long paperback from an author you’ve never heard of whose book has less than 100 reviews?
Most people are going to say A, right?
That hypothetical is the reality that self-publishing authors face—and I think it’s especially an issue for fantasy authors and debut authors.
I’ve turned down clients who weren’t ready for editing yet.
I’ve worked with clients who weren’t as ready for editing as they should have been.
And I’ve worked with clients who went through all of the work (and expense) of editing only to realize that publishing wasn’t really something they wanted to do.
So how do you know you’re ready for an editor?
That excitement you have for your shiny new idea won’t last forever.
You need pages and relationships with your characters and story progress to keep you motivated, not little details about the color of water or the decor in a bedroom.
I have pages and pages of worldbuilding for a story that hasn’t gotten past act one.
That’s not great. It doesn’t feel great either.
Learn from my mistakes.
These are the five essentials of worldbuilding. Everything else can wait until later.
My outlining process looks like this: ✨ new idea ✨ ➡ freewriting ➡ putting pieces into a specific structure ➡ organizing with index cards.
But that’s three different outlining methods smashed together, and it took experimenting to find what worked for me. If you’re new to outlining, you probably don’t know where to start!
So here’s a quick look at four different ways to outline, their pros and cons, and more! I hope it helps you find what works for you. And once you’ve figured that out, check back in; I’m working on a post all about ways to approach outlining.
Read MoreThere are a lot of different ways of writing prose; even the technically “wrong” ways of writing it can still get written off as an artistic choice.
But dialogue will either sound right or wrong. And it’s not always easy to pinpoint the problem.
Luckily for you, I’m here with some tips to help you write dialogue that’s natural, timeless, and true to your characters.
Get my guide for writing children’s dialogue!
Read MoreThe way you create doesn’t have to look the same as your favorite creator. You’re you. What you create is unique—and so is the way you create.
Here’s how you can use mindfulness to create a more flexible and nourishing writing routine.
Read MoreFlaws cause tension between characters and their loved ones, and if you plan it right, they can ruin everything (in a good way).
Read MoreTropes can be overdone (*cough cough* Love Triangles *cough cough*). They can be lame. They can be ridiculous.
But…there are some tropes that I personally enjoy. And I’ll be the first one to admit that some of these tropes are silly and dumb, but just because they’re guilty pleasures doesn’t mean I’m not going to talk about them!
Read More
