Four Reasons your novel needs backstory
Understanding your characters’ backstory can deepen motivations (why they want what they want) and solve plot problems (what they do next). The heart of your protagonist’s story is buried in their past.
Why Characterization Charts Don’t Work
No doubt you’ve seen them — the charts that allow you to get to know your novel’s characters by filling in the blanks. These charts prompt you with basic questions about each character: Siblings? Age? Education? Many writers spend hours diligently completing these charts and still don’t really know their characters.
4 Most Common WIP Problems
As a developmental editor, I see many of the same issues in novel and memoir manuscripts. The good news is that none of these issues are deal breakers for your WIP. Here are the four most common problems I find in manuscripts…and a few tips to fix them.
Four Ways Point of View Can Transform Your Story
Point of View (POV) is the framework for how your story is told. Let’s take a deeper look at how POV, perspective, and narration impact your novel or short story.
Five Tips to Help You Read Like a Writer
Close reading is an essential skill for all writers, allowing you to uncover how your favorite stories tick and putting those techniques to work in your own story.
Five Things Good Dialogue Should Do
We writers often think dialogue should be the easiest aspect of storytelling. After all, we talk all the time IRL. Therefore, conversations between our characters should be a no-brainer. Right? Wrong! As an editor, I find dialogue to be one of the biggest hurdles writers face and they don’t even realize it.
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