Sometimes, the middle of your story is like a confused forest trail. The trail starts out in front of your little cabin, so you follow it. It’s marked, “castle road,” so you assume you’re going to end up at a castle. Your trail winds under beehives, around boulders, and even through a tunnel. You follow […]

Your story seems to be falling apart, right before your eyes. The characters are shallow, the plot is going nowhere and has tons of holes, and your setting doesn’t work.  “Why is this happening?” You may think. “What could I have done to prevent this?”  Well, did you outline your novel?  Inevitably, for some writers, […]

Have you ever read a story that made you feel like you were experiencing it right alongside the characters? Or maybe you’ve noticed that some authors show you the thoughts of multiple characters, while others don’t let you into any of their thoughts. And some books purposefully leave you knowing less than the main characters, […]

You want your stories to matter, but you have the nagging sensation that they don’t. You know that you have a great message to share, but in the back of your head, you’re pretty sure that you come across as preachy instead of meaningful.  You may have heard before that the theme of your novel […]

You crack up at the dialogue on the page, and your siblings stare at you like you’re crazy. You can’t even stop to blink because you need to read what the protagonist says to the villain. You gasp. You shake your head. You miss the call to set the table. I wish I could write […]

You have always loved fantasy.  J.R.R. Tolkien, Andrew Peterson, J.K. Rowling, N.D. Wilson, C.S. Lewis, Jill Williamson, and S.D. Smith all have prominent places on your bookshelf and in your heart. You could talk about their stories for hours. And in your heart of hearts, when you first realized that you were a writer, you […]