Trigger warnings (or content warnings) are one of those topics that seem to spark endless debate in the book world.Some readers appreciate them. Others feel they act as spoilers. Some authors worry they reduce a complex story to a checklist of d…
I stopped chasing the perfect first draft a long time ago.Like most writers, I started out wanting every line to be perfect. I’d polish paragraphs, tweak dialogue, and rework scenes before moving on. Eventually, I realized I was wasting my time …
Writing a book isn’t hard. Finishing one is.The beginning is exciting as the world expands and the characters come to life. Jumping back in front of the keyboard is pretty easy.Then comes the middle. That’s when you hit the trenches, keeping the…
One of the most important questions a writer can ask is: What is my character’s “why”? Not what they want. Not what they do. But why they do it.A strong “why” gives context to every decision a character makes. Take “The Social Network” for examp…
There’s currently a lot of discourse on social media about readers skipping descriptive passages and only reading dialogue. Some authors seem genuinely alarmed by this. Readers have been skipping chunks of text for decades. Long before BookTok, …