In the age of interstellar travel and mythical creatures, the worlds of science fiction and fantasy hold an irresistible allure. From spaceships traversing distance galaxies to knights battling fire-breathing dragons, these genres help us to escape the confines of reality and let our imaginations...

Novels are the only storytelling medium that invites us into someone’s mind and allows us to follow along as that person makes sense of what’s happening. As the character makes sense of what’s happening, so does the reader. This kind of "on the page" processing is what it means to write interior...

Other than learning things like how to craft well-structured scenes or how to deliver what readers are expecting from a story in your genre or developing compelling and relatable characters or fleshing out three dimensional words…  Dialogue is the next thing on the list that you can tackle to ta...

I recently sat down for a conversation with one of the most inspirational people I know, Jamie Varon. And in our conversation, Jamie shares so many nuggets of wisdom about things like how she handles feedback (especially critical feedback), how she looks at writing (and especially the querying pr...

Which point of view should you choose for your novel? Should you use multiple points of view or stick to just one? Is it better to write in the past tense or present tense? Believe it or not, choosing which point of view to write your story from is one of the most important decisions to make whe...

I recently sat down for a conversation with a writer named Pauline Yates to talk about her writing, editing, and publishing journey. Pauline has just released her debut novel, Memories Don’t Lie, and in our conversation, we talk about how she went from dreaming up her idea (literally) to landing ...

Do you ever feel like if you just think and plan a little more, you’ll have your whole story figured out? Or if you just research a little bit longer, maybe you’ll unlock that one last worldbuilding element that’s been giving you trouble? Me too. I’m a recovering perfectionist—meaning that I kno...

In today’s episode, I’m going something a little different than normal. I’m going to take you behind-the-scenes with me throughout my entire week, and I’m going to share with you what I’m working on, what big projects I’m focused on right now, and basically, anything that happens during the week....

I recently sat down for a conversation with Jennifer Lauer—one of the writers I have had the privilege of working with over the last few years—to talk about her writing, editing, and publishing journey.  And I’m so excited to share this episode with you today because it’s a very special day for ...

You’ve probably heard the advice to “show, not tell,” but what does this really mean? In general, the advice to “show, don’t tell” means that a writer should relate information to readers through sensory details and actions rather than exposition.  And the thought behind this advice is that sho...

If you want to write a novel that hooks a reader’s interest, then you had better write an engaging first chapter. But how exactly do you do that? Since I’ve already provided resources on how to write a solid set of opening pages, and the big mistakes to avoid when writing your opening pages, I t...

Do you ever wish you could see a behind-the-scenes look at how other people write? Or that you could hear from other writers who have gone before you? Well, I have something super special for you today. I reached out to some of my Notes to Novel students and asked them to share the number one th...