Drafting

Many professional writers and editors love to hate narrative summaries—dubbing it “info dumping.” There’s good reason to be wary of the overuse of narrative summary, but people tend to overlook its applications. As with any writing technique, a thorough understanding of how and when to utilize narrative summaries can help […]

When it comes to writing a story, there are few things quite as challenging as giving it a proper title. A story’s title needs to be short, compelling, memorable, and appropriate to the genre and plot of the story. Not to mention, there’s a lot of pressure to pick a

Flashbacks are a common tool used by writers to give some context to the story they’re writing. It’s so common, in fact, that readers are accustomed to regularly getting glimpses of characters’ pasts, historical insights, and events that lead up to the beginning of the story. Not every story uses

If you’ve moved on to editing the first draft of your story, you may have noticed the word “said” comes up a lot. Using the word “said” is the quickest and easiest way to indicate which character is speaking in a story, so many first drafts are simply riddled with

If you’ve read a few of the other articles on this site, then you’ve probably seen me state “show, don’t tell” more than once. If that’s the first time you’ve heard that phrase, then you probably aren’t completely sure what it entails or how you’re supposed to apply that to

Prologues are at the center of a lot of debate in the writing world. Many people claim that prologues should never be used under any circumstances, while others are proponents for using prologues to create a unique opening to their story. It is one of the most divisive debates in

If you’re like most new writers, getting a professional editor to edit your story isn’t going to be feasible. If you write as a hobby, it won’t make sense to spend money getting your work professionally edited, and if you’re short on cash, it might be downright impossible. Editing services

Anyone who has ever started writing a story knows that the beginning is the hardest part. Whether it’s the first page, first paragraph, or even just the first line, starting a new story is tough. That is the page that convinces someone to read the rest of the story, so

If you’re writing a story, then you’ve probably encountered this common problem before: you’ve gotten to a point in the narrative where you need to write about something you’ve never seen, experienced, or learned before. Maybe your characters venture to a part of the world you’ve never been, or they