As a writer or novelist, organising your ideas can be a fundamental part of your creative process. Using productive note-taking apps to help you with this process can help streamline your workflow so you can make the most of your writing time. One free tool that has gained immense popularity among writers and creatives is the app Notion.
I've created a 50+ page Preptober Workbook to help writers have the best NaNoWriMo imaginable. Get the free download today!
As a writer, it's your job to tell your story through actions, instead of simply listing the events. Use the best plotting exercise to help you learn how to write visually compelling scenes!
I've created a 50+ page Preptober Workbook to help writers have the best NaNoWriMo imaginable. Get the free download today!
If you're a writer and feel like you can't get any focus, try these Android and iPhone apps for better organization.
A complete guide to increasing book marketing, sales and engagement on TikTok It has already been more than two years since I started using TikTok to promote my books. I was hesitant to jump into a new platform at first (starting with 0 followers and being clueless is scary!), but since 20
There's a wealth of book writing software out there to help you finish your book. These ten programs are the best tools for any writer.
A plot idea is just the beginning when you want to write a book and these simple questions help you turn that idea into a complete story.
In this book I will give you some advice on how to improve your writing, or at least what helps me! I AM NOT AN EXPERT. In fact, I am an amateur, and I would not, by all means call myself a real, greatly-skilled author. But these are the ways that I help myself and I think these ways will help you as well.
Okay, I promised some blogs about my plotboard. Now, I can’t claim to have invented the idea – far from it – but I’ve been tweaking my own approach to using index cards and pins to help me visualise my book for about six years now. I’m quite a visual thinker and it helps me to ‘see’ the structure of my book this way. It also provides a place to put all those ‘lightning bolt’ ideas I get about my book before, during and after the first draft. You know the kind of ideas I mean: the ones you get when you’re minding your own business, not even really thinking about the book and – BAM! – suddenly you know why your heroine is acting that way, or the perfect setting for a scene comes to mind, or just a line of dialogue pops into your head and triggers something off. When I get those kind of ideas – and they are generally my best ones – I scribble them down and pin them to my board. My board follows a chronological timeline of my work-in-progress, and when I think about where to pin that scrap of paper it often becomes instantly obvious where and when it should go. Do things move and change as I work on the book? Absolutely. That’s why God gave us coloured pins! That’s the beauty of a plotboard: nothing is set in stone. Anyway, here’s my first plotboard. This was the one I used for Her Parenthood Assignment. My whole approach to plotting was much less sophisticated (and probably much less neurosis-inducing) back then. I’d read that a good way to plot was to think of 20 things that needed to happen in your book. That’s what the pink index cards are: 20 plot points for the story. Then, as other ideas came to me, or notions of how I could develop those plot points floated to the surface of my consciousness, I tacked them onto the board next to the relevant plot point. Later that year, I listened to the audio recording of Michael Hauge speaking at the RWA conference in Dallas. I loved the way he divided a plot into six stages, with a turning point between each one. I’d already read The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, and was familiar with the steps of the hero’s journey, but Michael Hauge’s approach was simpler: basically three acts, with a turning point in the middle of each one. So I started trying to incorporate that into my board. Here’s version number 2, which I used to plot Christmas Wishes, Mistletoe Kisses (although, by the looks of it, I took this picture fairly early on in the process.) I turned my board landscape and divided the space into six sections with bits of string (well, actually it was yellow wool left over from a pair of socks my grandma had knitted me years before) and labelled those sections and the turning points at the top. Now when I had an idea I didn’t worry so much about getting it in exactly the right chronological order, as long as I stuck the scrap of paper in the right section I’d know where to find it. From what I remember, I decided to colour code to help me pick out the essential info. The white cards are plot events, the pink cards relate to my heroine’s journey and the blue my hero’s. Yellow cards were snatched of dialogue and the green were things to do with theme. I carried on using this format for a couple of years. Where I placed the cards and what colour they were changed as I tried different things out. Sometimes I was very fixed on cataloguing character arc and plot separately; sometimes I just threw it all on there any old way. The main disadvantage was that I could see the plot flowing from card to card in one long line, as I had with my earlier version. Then I read Save The Cat by Blake Snyder. Great book, and I loved his idea of storyboarding too. He divided his story board into four horizontal strips: Act 1, Act 2a, Act 2b and Act 3. I immediately decided to try the same thing, and discovered I now had room to use my plot point cards in chronological order, but I still had room to pin all the little flashes of ideas around them too. So this is how my current plotboard looks like: This the the board when I was halfway through writing The Ballerina Bride (US title)/Dancing With Danger (UK title). Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough already for this post, so next time I’ll talk about the structure of the different acts and what goes where.
A list of books recommended by Neverwhere author Neil Gaiman, including work by Charles Dickens, Roger Zelazny and G. K. Chesterton.
Learn how to rewrite articles using article rewriting tools, and find out which are the best online paraphrasing tools to rewrite sentences online.
Hey there! Even though this list is called “best Instagram hashtags for authors,” the ones that are best for you will depend on who you are and what you write. The list will probably ma…
From Audre Lorde to Jeffrey Eugenides, read a list of acclaimed Turkish writer Elif Shafak's favorite books.
all sure to enchant and enthrall you
Organizing ideas for your novel WIP can be overwhelming. Here's some tips about how I use my writer's notebook to get the most out of it.
From Bram Stoker to H.G. Wells, read a list of cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson's favorite book recommendations.
So today I will break down six copywriting examples. You’ll get to see a mix of blog posts, about pages, landing pages, homepages, emails, and good old sales
If you want to break into travel writing, you have endless opportunities to see your words in print and online. And even better, there are numerous publications that pay writers well. I’ve compiled a list of some well-known and less well-known freelance travel writing opportunities where you can pitch print and online travel publications. And best of all, they pay well.
The best creative writing exercises help you practise your writing skills in a fun way. Check out these writing exercises and writing prompts for adults.
Jami Gold's Writing Worksheets: Help for all writers, from newbies to experts and from plotters to pantsers.
Need ideas for what to blog about on your writer's blog? Here are 11 blogging ideas and topics for writers
Check out one of these best copywriting courses if you want to learn how to be an incredible copywriter and make a living writing.
If you’re not sure how to start writing after you get a story idea, you’re probably here looking for answers rather than questions. Yet asking the right plot questions will help you develop a single idea into a complete story. Every element of a story, whether it’s a character, a setting or just a certain […]
From Michel Faber to Alan Weisman, read a list of legendary English author David Mitchell's favorite book recommendations.
Great copywriting is a must-have marketing strategy. This simple tip will dramatically improve your copywriting skills — even if you’re not a writer.
Getting feedback from other writers is one of the best things you can do for your story. They will see aspects that need improvement you are too close to see and be able to articulate how you can improve your writing, so I recommend all writers join a writers’ critique group.
Six months ago, I started this blog! Since then, by far my most popular post has been one of the very first: 10 podcasts to make you a better writer. As I said in the original post, I'm pretty obsessed with podcasts, so in the months since then I've discovered some more podcasts that I've found helpful as a writer. So, in celebration of my six month blogiversary, I decided to post a part two! psst--stick around to the end of the post for a special giveaway! The Well-Storied Podcast is part of Kristen Kieffer's Well-Storied platform that every writer should be familiar with. The weekly podcast reinforces the blog post, featuring in-depth discussions of topics like character arcs, structuring a book series, writing voice, and more. Kristen is smart, talented, and generally wonderful, so her podcast is definitely a valuable resource for writers. Run time: 15 to 20 minutes While this podcast isn't strictly focused on fiction, Writing Class Radio is still educational no matter what genre you write. The hosts, Andrea Askowitz and Allison Langer, share creative nonfiction essays from the writing class they lead and offer critiques. The pair have great chemistry, and the edits they suggest somehow always work for that specific essay, while also being applicable to whatever you're writing as well. Run time: 15 to 20 minutes If there's one thing every writer can stand to improve in, it's grammar. Enter Grammar Girl. Her website is my go-to resource for any grammar questions, and so I was thrilled to learn she has a podcast. Host Mignon Fogarty is delightful and packs a ton of useful and interesting tips into a short span, making it the perfect way to improve your grammar and writing one episode at a time. Run time: 10 to 15 minutes Listening to other writers further along in their journey is one of the most helpful things for learning writers, and Home Row offers just that. The writers are a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and host J.A. Medders is an excellent interview, digging into their careers and discovering helpful lessons they've learned. Run time: 30 to 45 minutes I only recently started listening to the podcast, but already Mom Writes is becoming a favorite. A part of the book coaching program Author Accelerator, the podcast features three hosts: Abby Mathews and Melanie Parish are writers, Jennie Nash is a book coach, and all three are moms. Season one covers the Abby and Melanie working on their first draft with the help and advice of Jennie. Interviews with other writer moms (and dads!) are sprinkled in, and each episode is chock full of great advice for writers. Run time: 30 to 45 minutes What are your favorite podcasts for writers? Have you listened to any of these? Let me know in the comments! Now for the giveaway! I'm also celebrating six months on my bookstagram, so head over there for the chance to win two free books!
Learn how to rewrite articles using article rewriting tools, and find out which are the best online paraphrasing tools to rewrite sentences online.
Struggling through a first draft of a story or novel? Here are some of the best tips and quotes on first drafts from writers who have been there.
Figuring out the writing process as a new online writer might be confusing. The only teaching you had was in school or at work – writing essays, reports, opinion-based pieces, or full-out research papers where you conducted experiments and posited the results. This writing process won’t attract writing jobs online. It might even scare away […]
Bet you never thought of YouTube as a place for writing advice! We’ve rounded up 19 of the best YouTube channels for writers.
Check out the best freelance writing websites to find paid work. Get high-paid writing jobs even as a new writer.
Please note this was originally published via tweets by Emma Coates, a former Story Artist from Pixar. Eventually this lovely infographic was made. We've seen a lot of writing tips, but these concrete and approachable tips are some of the best we've seen.
Learn how to rewrite articles using article rewriting tools, and find out which are the best online paraphrasing tools to rewrite sentences online.
