Most writers think of tone as something that happens to a story—the mood that emerges from the choices made about setting, pacing, and prose style. In dark fiction specifically, tone isn’t just the atmosphere the story lives inside. It’s an active force that shapes what characters can do, what readers can feel, and what the story is actually about underneath the plot.
Dark Fiction Focus: Tone as a Character in Its Own Right Read More »
Every writer lands on one side of this problem more than the other. Some over-write—stacking adjectives, lingering past the moment of impact, over-explaining what the prose already showed. Others under-write—moving so fast through scenes that readers never get a foothold. The line between them moves depending on the scene, the character, and what the moment actually needs.
Over-Writing vs. Under-Writing: Finding the Line Read More »
Ask ten writers what author voice is and you’ll get ten different answers. Some will say it’s style. Some will say it’s tone. Some will say it’s the feeling a reader gets that they’d recognize this writer’s work anywhere, without being able to explain exactly why. All of those are partly right and none of them are fully right.
What Is Author Voice and Can You Actually Develop It? Read More »
There’s a specific kind of YA character that shows up constantly and lands with a thud every time. They make a bad choice, feel terrible, apologize, grow, and arrive at the end of the book a better person who has learned something. Clean. Resolved. Unconvincing. Real teenagers don’t work that way and neither should the characters who represent them.
YA Focus: Writing Morally Complicated Young Characters Without Softening Them Read More »
Every writer knows intellectually that first drafts are supposed to be bad. They’ve heard it, read it, nodded along. Then they write a bad page and feel like they’ve failed anyway. The problem isn’t the advice. It’s that knowing something and believing it are two completely different things, and the gap between them is where most manuscripts die.
First Draft Permission: Why “Bad” Pages Are Still Progress Read More »
Every writer hits the middle of a manuscript and loses the thread. Not gradually. Suddenly. One day the story was there and the next day it isn’t. This is not a sign that the book is broken. It’s a sign that the book has gotten complicated enough that the version you started with no longer matches the version currently on the page.
Writing Through the Messy Middle When You’ve Lost the Thread Read More »
An outline is a promise you make to a story you haven’t written yet. The problem is you don’t know your characters yet either. Rigid outlines fail not because structure is wrong, but because they ask you to honor a commitment made before you had the information to make it.
How to Outline Without Killing Your Spontaneity Read More »
Every writer’s earlier work contains the seeds of who they’ll become. Looking back at it isn’t comfortable, but it’s useful. This blog uses real material from the original version of what became Salt & Bone compared to the revised manuscript. Same world. Same characters. Completely different level of craft. Here’s what changed and why.
Scene Surgery: A Before and After Read More »
A scene that ends well doesn’t feel like it ended. It feels like something got cut off right before the reader was ready, and the only way to resolve the feeling is to keep going. The ending of a scene is the last thing a reader carries into the next one. Getting it wrong means they arrive carrying nothing.
Endings That Land: How to Close a Scene So Readers Turn the Page Read More »
Most writers know about scenes. Something happens, there’s conflict, the scene ends. What most writers skip is what goes between. The sequel is the beat that follows a scene, where a character processes what just happened, feels the weight of it, and decides what to do next. Skipping it is one of the most common reasons books feel like they’re moving too fast without actually going anywhere.
The Scene-Sequel Structure: Action, Reaction, Decision Read More »
