Craft Archives

Since many authors write in romance or its many subgenres, let’s go over the many different types of love we can write about, based on the Greek and Sanskrit words for love. Knowing these words allows us to find examples of them in our own work and deepen their meaning. These words do not belong to a single ancient taxonomy of love, nor does each have only one precise English equivalent. I’m us…

Journalism and novel writing could be said to be distant cousins—one bound by the constraints of facts, the other bound only by the author’s imagination. The differences in the two fields actually create a situation in which they can be of benefit to each other. Several celebrated novelists began their careers in newsrooms and brought the skills learned on the beat to their fiction writing: Ern…

Imparting wisdom and leading the way to adventure What’s the purpose of mentors in fiction? In real life, mentors can be found in schools, the business world, in athletic programs, or at church. They teach, guide, and motivate those who are less savvy about the world to negotiate life’s trials. So how are mentors employed in fiction? Taking inspiration from Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogle…

The beginning is not always the optimal place to start a story. Many authors have found that nonlinear storytelling, with its shifts across time and perspective, can deepen reader engagement and create a more layered narrative experience. Nonlinear novels do not follow events chronologically. Instead, authors may move forward and backward in time or develop parallel timelines that unfold in con…

If you’re writing a story, you’ll need secondary characters to flesh out the world you’re building. Otherwise, it’s a pretty dull world. You need sidekicks! Sidekicks are indispensable for asking or answering questions of your heroes. At the very least, they give your main characters someone to interact with. Are there differences between sidekicks, ensembles, and partners? Do you need them if …

We all want to write fast-paced, energy-packed dialogue, but like everything else related to being a novelist, what looks the most effortless from the outside is actually the most challenging. The magic of sizzling dialogue lies in what’s not said—an invisible tension beneath the words. Omission, misdirection, and precision make otherwise mundane conversations come alive. The goal is dialogue t…