Today I bring you How to Research for a Book: 7 Methods That Actually Work. And yes, these are 7 methods I've used, so I know what I'm talking about. If you've ever sat down to write a novel and realized you don't actually know how a detective dusts for fingerprints — or what a medieval...
I'm going to be honest with you: writing a book is not the hard part. Finishing one that's actually ready for someone else to read — that's where most people stall out. I've ghostwritten over a dozen books for other people, and I've watched the publishing process from the inside more times than I...
I used to think I was good at writing dialogue. Then I read my early drafts out loud and realized every single character sounded like me — a slightly anxious woman in her late twenties who uses too many dashes. That was a rough afternoon. But it was also the moment I started taking dialogue...
I need to tell you something embarrassing before we start. When I was nineteen, I spent two full years worldbuilding for a fantasy novel. I drew maps. I invented languages. I wrote a 40-page document on the political history of a fictional empire going back 600 years. And I never wrote the book....
Have you ever wondered how to overcome writer's block? There's a specific kind of dread that hits when you open your document, stare at the last sentence you wrote three days ago, and feel absolutely nothing. No ideas. No momentum. No desire to be there at all. If you've felt that, you don't need...
I used to think developing a character meant filling out one of those long character questionnaires — favourite colour, blood type, childhood pet, what they'd order at a restaurant. I'd answer sixty questions and still have no idea who this person was on the page. They had facts but no pulse. If...