by Ali | Nov 16, 2023 | Fiction
What is Pacing in Fiction? (And Is Your Pace Too Fast, Too Slow, or Just Right?) Your friend recommends a thriller to you and tells you it’s “a fantastic page-turner”. Another friend tells you about a sweet romance novel that’s a “gentle, slow burn”. Both your friends...
by Ali | Sep 21, 2023 | Fiction
Internal Conflict: Six Types of Internal Conflict (With Examples) The links to books in this post are Amazon affiliate links. That means that if you buy any of the books after going through my link, Amazon gives me a little bit of money. It doesn’t cost you anything...
by Ali | Jul 8, 2023 | Fiction
9 Stages of Writing a Novel (Plus Where You Might Get Stuck and How to Move On) Whatever stage of the process you’re at, writing a novel can be a whole lot of fun. But it also takes a lot of time. None of us have unlimited time to write (and chances are, your writing...
by Ali | Apr 28, 2023 | Fiction
Five Options for Telling Your Story in a Non-Linear Way … and Why You Might Want To Stories have a beginning, middle, and end … but they don’t necessarily need to be told in that order. Plenty of stories follow the advice given to Alice by the King in Alice in...
by Ali | Jan 20, 2023 | Fiction
How to Start a Novel: Eight Options Plus Examples Writing the first scene of a novel is tricky. Perhaps you’ve been slowly developing an idea for weeks, months, or even years. You might have written pages of notes or created a full outline. And now you’ve opened up...
by Ali | Oct 17, 2022 | Fiction
Choosing the Right Viewpoint and Tense for Your Fiction [With Examples] Note: This post was first published in 2013, and was last updated in October 2022. Who’s telling your story? Perhaps the choice is easy and obvious: you’re writing from a particular character’s...