You know your main character. You know their backstory, a handful of details about their childhood, and the exact way they take their coffee. You could probably talk about them for an hour. So why do they still feel flat? If you’re writing your first novel, this might be the quiet worry hum...

  If you've been feeling stuck writing your novel—second-guessing every decision, rewriting the same chapters, or quietly wondering whether you're even capable of finishing—I want you to meet five writers who've been exactly where you are. A longtime pantser who kept getting lost in her own m...

  If you're feeling completely lost writing your novel—like you don't know what happens next, or why a scene isn't working, or where your story is even going—this blog post is for you.  You see, most writers assume they're stuck because there's something wrong with their story (and that can b...

  Maybe you just typed "The End" for the first time. You survived the blank page, the middle-of-the-book crisis, and approximately forty-seven moments where you were convinced the whole thing was garbage. But you pushed through—and for a minute, it felt amazing. Or maybe you finished your dra...

  If you've ever told yourself you'll get serious about your novel when life calms down, when the kids are older, when work settles, or when you actually have time, this post is for you. Because I recently sat down with Jackie Henley, who writes under the pen name J.J. Henley, and her story c...

  If you’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed by all the AI conversation happening in the writing community right now, I want you to take a breath. You are not alone. Some writers are excited. Some are cautious. And others are somewhere in the middle, wondering: Is this going to affect my cop...

  In my last blog post, I shared stories from five Notes to Novel students who went from stuck to moving forward. You can find them here. This week, I'm back with five more writers who were all actively writing when they joined. Here's what they discovered: when you understand what each scene...

  Five writers. Five different starting points. One thing in common: they were all feeling stuck. Some had been buried in craft books for months. Others had finished entire drafts but struggled to explain what their stories were about. A few were rewriting the same scenes over and over, spinn...

  If you've been working on your novel for months (or years) without making real progress, I want you to know something: it's probably not a talent problem. More than likely, it’s a process problem.  And the good news about process problems? They're fixable. Today I'm sharing five signs that...

  If you've ever felt like your day job makes finishing a novel impossible, Poornika Kakkanaiah's story might change your mind. Working full-time in corporate finance, Poornika wrote a 114,000-word YA fantasy draft in just 88 days. She didn't quit her job. She didn't take a sabbatical. She si...

  You want to write a novel. You've wanted it for years—maybe decades. But between your full-time job, your commute, your relationships, and everything else that demands your energy, writing always seems to get pushed to "someday." Maybe you've tried to write after work, but by the time you g...

  In today’s episode, we’re going to do something fun and a little different. Since we’re nearing the end of 2025, I thought it would be fun to do a little highlight reel of clips from the top ten most listened-to episodes this year. So, I took the top ten most popular episodes, and I grabbed ...