The Chopping Blog

The plot of Jane Austen’s most famous novel of manners, Pride and Prejudice, is remarkably intricate for a book that has been described as “just a bunch of people going to each other’s houses.”

First, Google yourself. If anyone even semi-famous is already dominating the search results, you may want to consider a pen name.

Characters have arcs as they learn, adapt, and change over the course of a narrative. The same goes for relationships.

Join Darling Axe senior editors Michelle Barker and David Brown for a free 90-minute webinar on the importance of setting in fiction. 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Moby Dick have a surprising amount in common, at least in terms of narrative structure.

By emotionally moving the reader, we compel them to want more—the difficult and elusive goal for any writer—just to get the reader to keep turning the damn page.

The short story is a race car, it’s a snapshot, it’s a bird.

Narrative coaching can take many forms, and what exactly it involves depends on the author's needs and goals.

Ask yourself: what’s the worst thing that could happen to my protagonist in this situation, short of complete failure or death?

The moment you supply resolution, you stop the plot from moving forward.

Backstory can be an effective tool for developing character and adding tension, but it often gets mishandled. In simplest terms, backstory becomes a problem when there’s too much of it, and when it comes too soon.

What makes one manuscript stand out from the next? What snags and red flags will land your work in the bin rather than on the shortlist?