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Information overload

Knowledge Burnout and Information Overload

Often it seems that the more you study, the more you may feel entangled by what initially felt natural to you. You may start questioning and second-guessing whether you’re doing it right, getting wrapped around the axle. You may try to faithfully follow the tenets you’ve been taught and strip the life and originality out of your writing.

What the Exploding Creator Economy Means for Authors

What the Exploding Creator Economy Means for Authors

Artists—creators—are the indispensable source of the content insatiable consumers watch, read, listen to, and look at, as well as increasingly a driving source of market demand for a wild array of other products as well.

character motivation magical knowing

Creating Character Motivation: The Fallacy of Magical Knowing

Often in working on stories with authors, I point out areas where characters’ motivations feel unclear, fuzzy, or absent: The characters “just have a feeling.” They make great leaps of logic because they “just know” or sense something. They may experience a major shift in their arc because they suddenly have a realization out of nowhere. But if your protagonists don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, stories can feel vague, static, and low stakes.

NaNoWriMo First Draft

A Crash Checklist for NaNoWriMo—or Any First Draft

Facing a blank page and randomly starting to write—even if you start with a great idea or premise—is guaranteed to leave you stalled out or dead-ended long before Nov. 30.
Even if you’re a pantser, taking time to consider your destination and the route you’ll take to get to get there is a necessary element for arriving where you set out to arrive.

Who Shaped You; Who Shaped Your Characters?

Who Shaped You; Who Shaped Your Characters?

Fully developed characters don’t spring from a vacuum any more than we do as human beings. They, too, are a product of all the experiences, all the relationships, all the interactions they have experienced before readers join them in the pages of your story.

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