Habit 3: Put First Things First. Effective writers need the discipline of saying no and organizing themselves around the priorities that will make the greatest impact in the long run.

The most effective writers understand that a plan is the best way to make sure you get to where you want to go. Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind works on two levels, making it extremely versatile for writers.

An effective writer is one who knows why they do what they do and understands how their process will get them there. With a nod to Stephen Covey’s seminal work, this article tackles Habit 1 of seven foundational habits for authors who want to make a difference.

Having a strong grasp of your character’s internal conflict can help you make big-picture decisions when you’re revising your story. Read more about how you can use this developmental editing technique to focus your changes.

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably been told to “Show, don’t tell,” and along with that, to “Murder your darlings.” However, as an editor, I never give this advice, and here’s why.

It was another wonderful year at the RMC SCBWI Letters and Lines conference. This blog post shares a few great takeaways from the breakout sessions, including how to approach revisions and how to improve your writing voice.

Tips on how to use curiosity about your own work to stoke inspiration. Delve into the power of “what if,” changing point of view, inversions, and other techniques to help you see your work in a new light.

Stay inspired by cultivating curiosity in your own writing. Asking questions and challenging assumptions will go a long way to sustain you through draft after draft.

You may have heard the writing advice that a character’s goal should be established early on. But why are goals such a heavily prioritized part of writing craft? Learn how goals help readers learn more about your protagonist and build interest and tension. We’ll discuss the beginning of the anime Jujutsu Kaisen as a case study in the importance of establishing character goals.

You’ve finished your draft—now what? This blog post discusses steps to take to edit your own manuscript, including questions to ask yourself, suggestions for outlining, and advice on prioritizing your vision for your book and developing your craft.

Use the Hero’s Journey to evaluate Act One of your sequel, keeping in mind five principles to craft a compelling series arc. Also, a case study in Uncharted 4.

A walkthrough of the Hero’s Journey in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception using commentary from Christopher Vogler’s Writer’s Journey and Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces.

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.

Keep your creative writing juices flowing! Here we investigate the uses of Pinterest for writers, first looking at the importance of collecting inspiration, how to expand your imaginative catalogue, and how to avoid falling down the rabbit hole of curation.

Working with a manuscript editor? Here are four truths about editing and four tips on how to navigate critique like a pro that will bolster your confidence and help you make informed, decisive revisions that will strengthen your story.

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.

Taking another look at Jedi: Fallen Order from a book editor’s perspective. How can a focus on characters, plot, and theme take this story to the next level?