Writing and Editing Tips

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...

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...

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...

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...

As an editor and book coach, writers ask me all the time -- Do you have any tips for writing a better first draft? Is there anything I can do to make this whole 'writing a book' thing easier!?

And my answer is YES! Focus your efforts and attention on learning how to write a strong,...

What is a scene? And how do you write a scene that works?

In this post, we're going to talk about how to write a well-structured scene and then I'm going to walk you through my favorite method for structuring a scene. After that, I’ll show you how this structure shows up in one of...

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...

In the last post on story structure, we went over the second story milestone – the Inciting Incident. As a reminder, the Inciting Incident is an event that upsets the balance of your protagonist’s life, gives rise to their object/s of desire, and foreshadows the story’s...

How do you get readers to keep reading past the first page of your novel?

With all the books available to them in bookstores and online, it’s more important now than ever to immediately capture your reader’s interest and give them a reason to buy or read your book over someone...