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How to Craft a Compelling Character Arc: Epiphanies, Lightbulb Moments, and the Right Ideas
Your character was Wounded. From that Wound, they got the Wrong Idea, and their life has never been the same. During the events of your book, your character has answered their call to…
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How to Craft a Compelling Character Arc: The Misbelief, or the Wrong Idea
Your main character has a tragic backstory to make even the toughest among us shed a tear. During their story, they overcome adversity despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles placed in front of them…
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A Letter to My Burned Out Creative Self
Inspired by a Ko-Fi challenge, May being Mental Health Awareness Month, my recent chat with Gala Russ on Writing Conversations, and my own patterns of getting burned out (which have once again resurfaced),…
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How to Craft a Compelling Character Arc: From Wounded to Warrior
Learning how to craft a compelling character arc is the thing to take your stories from readable to unputdownable. It’s not going to be your prose. It won’t be your setting or your…
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18 Must-Read Posts on Writing Craft, Story Structure, & Character Development
There’s no shortage of writing craft tips on the web. I should know—during my tenure as Writer’s Atelier’s administrative assistant, I wrote a lot of them! Something you’ll realize quickly if you get…
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Lessons Learned from Writing with 4thewords
If you told me in early 2022—just a few months before I learned these 4thewords writing lessons—that I’d one day have an 883-day writing streak, I would have said that was a weirdly…
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What is a Story Coach?
Here’s something a little embarrassing: for the longest time, I thought being a story coach wasn’t a real thing. This was back in the days when I was helping local writers I knew…
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10 Ways to Make Your Characters’ Romance Feel Meant to Be
No matter what genre you write, I’m willing to bet you’ve at least consider giving your characters a romance. It’s no mystery why—no matter how dark and twisted the plot, a love story…
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How to Organize Writing Resources and Beat Overwhelm After a Writing Summit or Conference
I love attending and speaking at writing summits and conferences, be they virtual or in-person. Learning from fellow authors and writing coaches never fails to light me up, and of course, I collect…
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16 Posts on Writing Mindset to Keep You Motivated All Year
I am writing this blog post high off of NYE—that’s New Year Energy. Everyone loves a fresh start, and I’m absolutely including myself in that. As I mentioned, my word of the year…
