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World-Building Questionnaire: Religion and Belief Systems
August 15, 2024
Understanding your world’s religion and belief systems is crucial—they affect your characters' values, motivations, and interactions.
- On the craft
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World-Building Questionnaire: Daily Life and Customs
July 25, 2024
Understanding the daily life and customs of your world is crucial. They affect characters' behaviors, traditions, and interactions.
- On the craft
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World-Building Questionnaire: Economy and Trade
July 23, 2024
Your story world’s economy and trade affect the wealth distribution, power dynamics, and daily lives of your characters.
- On the craft
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World-Building Questionnaire: Government and Politics
July 01, 2024

Your story world’s government and political systems affect the power dynamics, conflicts, and daily lives of your characters.
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World-Building Questionnaire: Geography and Environment
July 01, 2024
Your story world’s geography and environment affect the culture, economy, and daily lives of your characters.
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What's the Difference Between an Alpha Reader and a Beta Reader?
May 01, 2024
A great novel is honed, not hatched. And to hone your novel, you need feedback.
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Truth in Fiction's Clothing: The Subtle Distinctions Between Memoir & Autofiction
March 22, 2024
All fiction is autobiographical in the sense that your characters and story world are drawn from your lived experience of people and places.
- On the craft
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- 1 comment
Inside Job: Transforming Characters Through Internal Conflict
March 14, 2024
If you give your protagonist an internal conflict, they will feel authentic to the reader, and you will create an essential connection between reader and protagonist that is at the heart of all engaging stories.
- On the craft
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On the Beaten Path: How to Use Beats in Fiction
January 17, 2024
Honor the tiny beat and it will carry the weight of a whole character for you.
- On the craft
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- 2 comments
How (and Why) to Structure Your Memoir Like a Bestselling Novel
November 08, 2023
An engaging memoir, while rooted in reality, employs the same narrative devices that make novels compelling.
- On the craft
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- 3 comments
Why We Named Ourselves the Darling Axe
November 06, 2023
The counsel to "kill your darlings" has been repeated many times by many editors, writers, and writing instructors.
- On the craft
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Who Cares?! The importance of stakes in fiction
September 27, 2023
External conflict is essential to keeping the story moving, but it's the internal conflicts of your characters that make the reader care.
- On the craft
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