by Ali | Mar 10, 2023 | Fiction
What is a Scene? Understanding and Using the Basic Unit of Story Structure This post was first published in March 2016 and updated in March 2023. Scenes are the building blocks of your novel. When you plan (if you plan!), you’re thinking in scenes: individual little...
by Ali | Mar 2, 2023 | Motivation
When Mental Health Gets in the Way of Your Writing: An Interview With Emma (Science at Your Doorstep) All of us have moments, as writers, when what’s going on in our head gets in the way of writing. Maybe you’ve had times when you’ve struggled against a consistently...
by Ali | Feb 23, 2023 | Fiction
Five Powerful Ways to Make Your Novel’s Plot More Complex Is your novel’s plot complex enough? If you’ve drafted a novel and you’re done in 50,000 words when you were aiming for 80,000, or if the pacing feels wrong – perhaps not much happens and you’ve dragged out...
by Ali | Feb 10, 2023 | Motivation
How to Recover Your Writing Confidence (Even if You Think You Never Had Any) This post was first published in June 2011 and most recently updated in February 2023. I don’t think I’ve ever met a writer who felt completely confident about their writing....
by Ali | Feb 2, 2023 | Motivation
How to Write When … You’re Tired This post is part of my ongoing “How to Write When…” series. Are you tired today? Perhaps you slept well, you’re full of energy, and you’re raring to go. But even if that’s the case today, you likely have...
