Every building needs a solid framework to keep it standing strong, and storytelling is much the same. A good foundation of story beats will keep your story flowing in a satisfying way, keeping your readers hooked. Whether they realize it or not (and most of them don't!), readers are highly attuned to these beats. In the same way you might abandon a building with no support beams and a sagging ceiling, the reader may abandon reading your story if the support it needs is missin

I recently came across a story spine created by Kenn Adams of Synergy Theater in San Francisco and made popular by Pixar Animation Studios. Through a series of writing prompts, it guides the development of a story. The idea is to follow each prompt until a story emerges. Finding myself at a plot impasse, I used it as a tool to get my creative juices flowing again. Here is my sample using the story spine framework (structure in bold): 1. Once upon a time… … there was a woman

Point of view (PoV) may seem a trivial aspect of writing, but sometimes it can play a pivotal role in telling your story. It's not...

(Self-editing Tips for Authors) Imaginarium Convention, 2023 JoAnn Sky, Presenter I attended the Imaginarium Convention last year in...

Excerpt from the book Cat Grammar Guide by Linda Hart and Don Hart, illustrated by Tonya Foreman (Four Cats Publishing, 2023), available...

Most of us begin an author’s life b/c we cannot not! We must write! We love words -the power, the ideas, images, adventures,...

A writer has many reasons for having multiple points of view in their story. There isn't even a rule for how many to use. How many do you...

Where Should Your Story Begin? It might seem obvious that a story should begin at the beginning, but finding the right moment to hook...

If you are stalled with your character and can't seem to get them up and going, ask yourself if your character is passive or active. If...

As a new author, I remember making the dreaded mistake of opening my story with my character's alarm clock going off. We've all seen it....

Good dialogue is really, really hard to get right. It takes a lot of time, practice, and precious feedback to learn how to get your words...

The one thing I like to stop and think about when writing children is: 'How big is their world?' Kids grow up in a world much smaller...

Set stakes according to the wordcount Every story has something at stake for the character. In a large, multi-book series it may be an...