Category: Craft

What is your story’s hook?

There’s a lot of “rules” out there about writing, and while I abide by some of them, others I ignore. Writing is a very personal journey, and great storytelling can use different shapes and delivery methods.

Recently I was asked about using description when writing scenes. Description is one of those ingredients that can be difficult (especially in the beginning) for authors to use. Some common questions I get are:

I’d written over 20 novels before I was introduced to the concept of Deep POV. As it turned out, I had been writing in deep point of view and hadn’t realized it. So what is deep point of view and how should it be executed?

A great plot twist will leave a reader stunned, their jaw working open and closed in disbelief as their mind works frantically to connect pieces of a puzzle they weren’t aware of until now.

We recently had the pleasure of having bestselling post-apocalyptic thriller author Kyla Stone on our stage at Inkers Con. She shared her detailed plan on how she tripled her income when she began to write to market.

I recently interviewed Dean Koontz for a BingeBooks book club, and learned a few really interesting things.

He’s a massive superstar with 500 MILLION books sold. Fourteen #1 New York Times Bestsellers. Over 100 books written.

There are many methods for developing characters – building them in your head and via spreadsheets, character diagrams, interviews etc.

But once you flesh out who they are, how do you show that character development in your novel?

First drafts are… as I like to warn every new author, messy. But hey – they’re supposed to be! That’s part of the creative process – the regurgitation of ideas into one big pile of words on a page.

First drafts are loveably troublesome, and it’s easy to miss some of their weaknesses and problems. That’s where a great editor is worth their weight in gold. Editors are accustomed to dirty first drafts, and how to mold them into beautiful and intriguing works of art. In this post, editor Tex Thompson will share the 10 most common first draft problems that she sees.