In today’s post, we’re going to continue going through the 15 “beats” of Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! Story structure template. Specifically, we’re going to focus on the beats that make up the second half of act two, or the second half of the middle section of your story.  If you need h...

  In today’s post, we’re going to continue going through the 15 “beats” of Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! Story structure template. Specifically, we’re going to focus on the beats that make up the second half of act two, or the second half of the middle section of your story.  If you need h...

  In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to use Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! Beat Sheet to plot the first half of the middle section of your novel. If you aren’t familiar with Blake Snyder’s work, the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet is a popular story structure template that subdivides the b...

  In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to use Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! Beat Sheet to plot the beginning section of your novel. If you aren’t familiar with Blake Snyder’s work, the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet is a popular story structure template that subdivides the beginning, middl...

Almost every writer struggles with imposter syndrome at one point or another. Usually, this looks like getting stuck somewhere in the process and asking things like, "Who am I to even write a book? What will people think? What if I finish it and it's terrible?" Can you relate? I know I can. I've...

Publishers give many reasons why they don’t want to pick up a particular book. For example, sometimes the story itself works, but the timing just isn’t right for the publisher.  And if that’s the case, you can’t do anything about it except start writing something else while you wait for the st...

In today's post, I'm covering the obligatory scenes of the action genre. If you want to write an exciting action story that works -- and that satisfies fans of the genre -- then you need to nail these six key scenes in your novel. I’m also going to show you how these key scenes manifest in three...

Romance is one of the best-selling genres in mass-market fiction with a large fan base of readers who just can’t get enough. In today’s post, I’m going to go over the ten conventions that must be present in your romance novel in order to satisfy those readers and to write a story that works. I’m...

Do you ever wish that there was someone who you could talk to about your story that would give you constructive feedback and guidance while you write? Or do you ever feel like if someone could just tell you the exact steps to take to finish your draft that this whole book writing thing would...

Do you ever feel like you're not making as much progress with your writing as you'd like to be making? As a developmental editor and book coach, I work with many, many writers who have been stuck at the starting line or in the middle of a draft and who are not reaching the goals they’ve envision...

If you want to buy a house or a car, it's common practice to create some kind of strategic plan for getting there, right? You save up some money, you do some research, and eventually, you accomplish your goal -- you buy the house, or you buy the car. So, why is it that when it comes to writing, ...

In the last post on story structure, we went over the first story milestone – the Hook. As a reminder, the Hook is your first opportunity to catch your reader’s attention and draw them into your story. But once you’ve hooked them, how do you keep their interest and convince them to keep turning t...