As writers, holding our work to high standards can help us craft sensational stories. But when those high standards aren’t accompanied by a healthy creative mindset, the seeds of perfectionism can take root. Why is this so dangerous?

Themes are an integral part of any good story. Yet many genre fiction writers fail to consider their story’s themes, believing they have no place beyond literary novels — or worse yet, that authors who actively explore themes in their stories do so to preach to readers.

These harmful misconceptions hinder writers’ efforts to produce effective and engaging stories.

Themes are present in all forms of fiction. More importantly, when handled with care, themes lend purpose and meaning to the stories we tell. To fail to develop our stories’ themes with intention is to risk undermining their ability to engage and compel readers.

As a new writer, I had no idea how to approach the novel revision process. I had only ever revised short stories and academic papers before. Revising a long-form piece was a much larger task that required more moving parts and careful observation.

I took to the Internet in search of revision advice, but to my surprise, there wasn’t much detailed information available for new authors to learn from. Through a few limited resources and a lot of effort, I managed to work out a fairly good procedure that I want to share with you today in the hopes of shedding some light on the revision process for new writers.

While writing a book can be challenging, many writers find promoting themselves and their work to be far more overwhelming. Just the thought of marketing is often enough to make many writers want to put a blanket over their heads. It can easily become many writers’ least favorite tasks.

But what if I told you there’s a way to actually enjoy marketing your books? It’s true!

The secret lies in a mindset shift. Instead of thinking of marketing as an icky way to beg people to buy your books, think of it in terms of one of your favorite things to do: writing a story.

As writers, we tend to roll our eyes when we catch common tropes in literature. Popular writing advice teaches that tropes are bad and that writers should avoid them at all costs. For the most part, this is true. However, there are ways to reinvent old tropes that can breath fresh life into our stories.

But what is a trope, exactly? Great question!

A trope can be defined as a significant or recurrent theme in literature. Writers are often warned against using common tropes because they can weigh a story down, filling them with predictable and unimaginative elements that feel unprofessional (or even lazy), ultimately diminishing readers’ enjoyment of your work.

To give evidence to this assertion, let’s take a look at a few common character tropes…

While reading, we become active participants in a point-of-view character’s journey (seriously, our brains become the character). This means that when characters undergo a deep journey of change, we do too. Character arcs are the method through which authors move hearts, change minds, and influence the world.

For readers to care what happens next in your story, they must first care about your characters. It’s your job as a writer to foster this reader-character connection, to build the bridge that encourages readers to invest in your characters’ stories. Establishing your characters’ motivations isn’t the only way to encourage this reader-character connection, but it is a surefire way to lend context to your characters’ actions. With context in place, readers can then decide whether your characters and their journeys are worth their emotional investment.

You can spend months crafting the perfect novel for your audience, only for it to sell poorly because you haven’t taken your metadata seriously. It may not be fair, but it’s true--the metadata for your eBook can make or break your sales.  But what is metadata? Here’s a list of what it includes:  1. Book title 2. Subtitle 3. Series information 4. Description 5. Author 6. Contributors 7. Publisher 8. Keywords 9. Category You enter all of these metadata elements when you’re publishing your book.

If you write short fiction, submitting to literary magazines is a great way to find an audience. But with thousands of magazines to choose from, submissions might feel intimidating. Don't know where to begin? Or even what to think about when submitting to litmags? This guide breaks down the big considerations as you delve into the world of submissions.

To fill our stories with characters who feel as real as the people around us, we must delve deeper than classic archetypes and easy characterizations. This work begins with developing richly complex personalities for our characters that lend to their most vibrant portrayals. Discover my favorite personality-building tool today >>

At the heart of every good story is conflict.

In plot-driven stories, this conflict is primarily external in nature. The protagonist fights to overcome a series of obstacles and/or defeat an antagonist in their quest to achieve a particular goal. For example, in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen must outlive her fellow competitors and outsmart the game-makers’ vicious whims to survive a televised fight to the death.

However, in character-driven stories, external conflict often takes a back seat. Instead, it’s internal conflict that drives the story forward as the protagonist struggles to overcome a core fear or flaw to achieve a particular goal and/or become a better version of themselves. This fear or flaw often manifests in a false belief that’s otherwise known as the “lie” your character believes. It’s this lie that we’re going to explore in detail today.

A step outline is more than just another pre-writing technique. It's an active document that can help you hone your novel at every stage of the writing process. Author and editor Mel Lee-Smith explains in this article for the Well-Storied blog!