Your short story or novel has, at best, only a few paragraphs to grab your reader’s interest. Within minutes, your audience will decide whether or not to keep reading. So it’s vital that your story starts with something memorable, engaging, and effective enough to hold their attention. In the same…

From C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, books in a series have long been popular. When a story spans more than one book, readers can spend more time visiting their favorite characters and worlds. And…

Whether you’re a new writer or a seasoned, published author, creative writing exercises can help develop and hone your writing skills. We’ve seen firsthand how using writing exercises can improve a writer’s work and even provide some new inspiration. Now the stars have aligned, and we’re bringing you writing exercises…

You’re ready to try your hand at writing short stories, poetry, or a novel, but you don’t know where to begin. Unlike nonfiction writing, which focuses on cold, hard facts, creative writing is an artistic expression that requires putting your imagination and creativity into words. The experts have evaluated thousands…

Every story needs a strong beginning — one that is compelling enough to jump-start the plot, grab your readers, and carry them along to the very last page. One of the best ways to do this is with an inciting incident. An inciting incident, also called a catalyst, is an…

Every writer’s goal is to grab and hold their readers’ attention from the very first word to the last. Once your audience has eagerly started turning pages, how do you ensure they stick around until the end? One of the best ways to keep your readers engaged is to use…

When you read a story, you typically start at the beginning, continue through the middle, and then finish with the end. But does that mean you have to write a story, novel, or memoir in that same order? It might seem odd or messy to write out of sequence, but…

While writing and self-publishing a book may seem like a solitary endeavor, often there are other people involved who help you reach your goal. From proofreading, to cover design, to beta readers and more, there may be individuals you want to thank for helping your self-published book become a reality…

With imaginative storylines and interesting characters, fiction writers can engage their readers from the first sentence to the last. But when you’re writing nonfiction like a self-help book or an autobiography (or even creative nonfiction like a personal essay or memoir), you don’t have the same license to be flexible…