As writers, it’s practically our job description to come up with ideas. But how do we know which ideas belong in the story and which ones should be put to the side? Read more for techniques to evaluate which ideas should stay.

Reading like a writer is one of the best (and cheapest) ways to strengthen your skills. In this article, we look at three ways to start reading critically: analyzing characters, examining techniques, and evaluating impact.

Take your manuscript to the next level by learning how to identify problems with written dialogue and how to craft natural and realistic conversations.

One of the primary rules of telling a story is that the story must move. In this post, we’ll be chatting about two techniques from Shawn Coyne’s work The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know that you can use to get a new perspective on your manuscript and ensure that each scene shows a clear change.

Poetic devices aren't just for spicing up sentences—they also serve as big-picture story elements from plot to worldbuilding to inspiration for character arcs.

Looking to add more voice to your writing? Poetic devices can be used by writers of picture books to memoir, young adult to adult in any genre. Common sentence-level devices like alliteration, assonance, consonance, and even zeugma can add wonderful flavor to your work!

Rhyme is just one of many poetic devices! Like the spices in your cabinet, if you know their names and what they taste like, you’re far more likely to use them and enjoy what they add to a dish—or in this case, how poetic devices can strengthen your writer’s voice and your story.

Learn an easy self-editing technique that helps you spot clunky description and fix it by zeroing in on two common culprits: too many adjectives and physical description.

If you want to start writing but don’t know where or how to begin, here is a list of ideas you can use to get started right here and now.

Whether you've written one hundred stories or one haiku, this list will give you tools designed to help you push past opening line jitters and page fright. Each book needs to be written its own way, which means you might need to try something new to start your new manuscript.