Writing Roots

Dialogue can be tricky for authors, especially if you’ve never heard of the idea of beats in dialogue. It can either feel stilted in an attempt to make it grammatically correct, or end up nonsensical ...

27 Jul 202111min

Stories generally develop in one of two ways: with a focus on the plot with the characters playing their parts, or a focus on the characters as they navigate the world. In other words, plot-driven or ...

22 Jul 202111min

A key to unique characters is to develop and maintain character voice. Think of your favorite books. Can you tell who is speaking without needing to read the dialogue tag? If you can, that means that ...

19 Jul 202111min

Narrative flow is important for keeping your reader engaged in the plot. You want to keep driving them forward to the next event or next reveal. There are times, though, when it’s okay to reveal somet...

15 Jul 202111min

You’ve probably heard about the trope of Chekov’s Gun. We’ve talked about it here multiple times. The idea behind it is that if there’s something, such as a gun, described in the story then it needs t...

12 Jul 202111min

The narrative in a story has so much influence on how the story will progress. Most authors are familiar with the broad categories of first person and third person, but there are subtle differences wi...

8 Jul 202110min

One major part of the editing process is doing what’s known as developmental edits. These are structural changes to a story. That can be removing scenes or making sure the stage is properly set for th...

5 Jul 202111min

Editors are an invaluable piece of the publishing process. No one should publish without having someone with editing knowledge look at the manuscript. If you think about all of the books with a New Yo...

1 Jul 202111min