Writing Tips

From subgenres to tropes and beyond, there are many ways to categorize a romance story. We may not know exactly what type of story we’re writing while drafting (especially if we tend to write by the seat of our pants), but once we type “The End,” we do need to figure out what we’ve created…. The post Falling in Love: Types of Romance Stories appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

By Janice HardyThe premise is the core of the novel. Make sure it’s solid.When I first started The Shifter (the first book in my trilogy), I didn’t know it was going to be part of a series. But as the story developed, I saw the bigger picture and where the problem facing my protagonist, Nya, could lead to. As that story continued, I focused more and more on Nya’s journey, because stories are about characters in trouble. But by the time I got to book three, I’d forgotten something really important.I was ignoring the broader implications of my original premise.Nya was a “shifter,” someone who could heal by shifting pain from person to person. This included pain of her own, so anytime someone hurt her, she’d be able to shift it right back into them. Which made for some fun fight scenes. In the first draft of book […]

No matter what genre you write or who your audience is, one thing is certain: Everyone experiences fear. It shapes how people think, the choices they make, and influences how they live their lives. Tapping into a character’s fear is a powerful way to draw readers in because they can’t help but be reminded of… The post How Universal Fears Pull Readers into the Story appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Fiends, demons, dark souls and freaks! You should come see me on tour for The Calamities, coming out in August. Why should you do this? Because you wish to pledge your undying loyalty to me uhh I mean because you want the book and you want me to talk good words at you and deface

Visceral, gritty, and unforgiving, GRIEF EATER is a zombie story like you’ve never read before.  When Kristina rises from her violent death, she’s not the same fragile woman her family once abandoned. She’s rageful, powerful, and hungry—for the blood of the ones who were supposed to love her. With a newfound craving to see vengeance

Generating ideas is the most underrated skill in a novelist’s toolkit—more essential than an appetite for cold-blooded revision, a head for structure, or a gift for dialogue. Generating more story possibilities within a single manuscript separates a competent draft from a novel with depth, complexity, and staying power. So how do you come up with… The post How to Generate Better Story Ideas Using the Ones That Don’t Work appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

By Janice HardyReaders don’t mind backstory—as long as it’s something they want to hear about.The first novel I ever wrote was fantasy, so naturally, it had a lot of backstory. Every character had huge histories and shady pasts, and I couldn’t wait to share every last detail with my readers. And it turned out about how you’d imagine.Boring pages, no action, flashbacks that nobody but me cared about. It was a mess.A person’s past is part of life, and everybody has one—especially fictional characters. But that past isn’t always relevant, even if it is interesting. Stopping to explain a character’s history tends to bog a novel down. Too much backstory is also high on the list of why an agent rejects a manuscript, and many advise cutting all backstory from the first 50 pages.A bit extreme, sure, but more times than […]

When a character suffers emotional pain, the brain’s response is to stop the discomfort, and often this results in a coping mechanism being deployed. Whether it’s an automatic response or a learned go-to strategy, a mechanism helps them cope with the stress of the moment or escape the hurt of it. But if the character… The post Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Cultivating Trust appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

It would’ve been better if it were worse. That’s one of the thoughts that keeps rolling around my head about this movie. That, and “how can a movie that’s so exciting be so boring?” That, and the thing my kid said after leaving the theater, which was, “It was all just a straight line.” (Well,

As a Book Coach and developmental editor, I work on hundreds of books with writers each year, in full or in part. I give feedback on drafts, debuts, and nearly polished manuscripts written by writers tackling their third, fourth, or even tenth book. Because I follow the journeys of so many writers, I’m in a… The post Five Truths I Learned Editing Hundreds of Books That Might Change Your Life appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Why yes, fiendish readers, there is a pre-order campaign for The Calamities. As always, if you choose to pre-order The Calamities from my local, The Doylestown Bookshop, you will receive some nifty things that you will not receive elsewhere — Which is to say: You will get the book, obviously. I will sign it and

With no shortage of things that can trigger a character’s fear, learning how to show it becomes just as important to writers as plotting, character-building, and crafting a realistic story world. Here’s the good news: Fear kickstarts an automatic survival response that affects a character’s behaviour, perceptions, thoughts, choices, and more. With so many cues… The post 8+ Ways to Signal Your Character’s Fear to Readers appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

By Janice Hardy Betrayal can come in many forms, and most of them make for great stories. The “unexpected betrayal” has always been a popular trope, but there was a time when it was everywhere, especially in young adult novels. The “trusted mentor suddenly turning on you” was the most common, but betrayals were coming from all quarters. Close friends, random people, family. They started to feel a bit deus ex machina to me. It was like yanking off the mask at the end of Scooby-Doo and seeing Old Man Withers.So instead of a betrayal surprising me, I was playing the “I wonder which one of these allies will turn on the hero in the third act?” game. I knew it was coming, and more times than not, the same old “Aha! I was secretly working for the villain” was the big twist. The problem here…A twist isn’t a surprise […]

When a character suffers emotional pain, the brain’s response is to stop the discomfort, and often this results in a coping mechanism being deployed. Whether it’s an automatic response or a learned go-to strategy, a mechanism helps them cope with the stress of the moment or escape the hurt of it. But if the character… The post Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Visualization appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

If Ophelia Cohen learned one thing from her parents, it’s that getting married is a bad idea. But if she’s learning anything from her widowed mother’s dementia, it’s that dying alone is worse. So when she meets Luke — the man of her mother’s dreams — marriage suddenly doesn’t seem so crazy. But none of

Writing The Fear Thesaurus taught us so much about the psychology of fear and how that translates for our characters. The difference between minor and deep fears, the role fear plays character arc, how we can build it into a story’s turning points to shore up the structure…there’s so much to know about this important… The post A Mother Lode of Resources on Character Fear appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

As authors we hold all the cards when it comes to how and when we reveal key information to our readers. Withholding certain details can create intrigue and set up twists the reader doesn’t see coming. But if we aren’t careful, our readers might feel confused or cheated and consider our purposeful withholding as breaking… The post The Art of Withholding Information appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

By Janice Hardy Character archetypes are a useful tool in creating characters for a novel. At some point in your writing journey, you’ve probably come across the term “archetype.” This has no doubt led you to articles quoting Carl Jung (the father of psychology) and his twelve character types. Pursuing that further, has likely led to multiple articles about the variations of those and the common archetypes used in fiction. And then your head likely started spinning and you wondered how the heck any of that was going to help you write a better novel. But there’s a difference between Jungian archetypes and fictional archetypes. Jung’s focus was on defining the human psyche, not telling a grand tale, so his list tends be more thematic in nature. Which is great if you’re writing literary fiction with Deep and Meaningful […]

When a character suffers emotional pain, the brain’s response is to stop the discomfort, and often this results in a coping mechanism being deployed. Whether it’s an automatic response or a learned go-to strategy, a mechanism helps them cope with the stress of the moment or escape the hurt of it. But if the character… The post Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Fantasizing About Revenge appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Want to win editorial feedback and take your storyfrom good to great? Well, my writerly friend, you’re in luck! It’s time for our monthly Phenomenal First Pages contest. In this draw, you can win… Editorial feedback on the first 5 pages of your novel. This contest is closed. Please try again next month. If you’d like… The post Win Feedback on 5 pages! appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.