Category: Writing
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How Do I…
I’ve seen a lot of “How do I…” questions lately. “How do I make this feel more emotional?” “How do I write a compelling villain?” “How do I make my prose less clunky?” “How do I fix the pacing in my middle chapters?” And the truth is—none of these have a one-line answer. Not really.…
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Inversion
Empathy is about stepping into someone else’s shoes. Inversion is about reversing the whole damn frame. Not just, “What is this character feeling?” But: “What if they’re right, and my protagonist is wrong?” “What if this story goes the other way?” It’s a question I ask myself all the time. Inversion is one of the sharpest…
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Your Idea Isn’t Worth Anything (Until You Tell the Story)
This topic arises frequently in writing communities, especially among those just starting out. “I have this amazing idea. Do you think it’s good?” “Would you read a story where…?” “Is this too cliché?” And, my personal favourite: “Has this been done before?” (Answer: Probably. But not like you’d do it) Here’s the truth: Your idea…
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Write It Down… So It Can Grow
Ideas are funny things. They feel big when they first arrive—loud, full of potential, impossible to ignore. But if you don’t give them somewhere to go, they start to shrink. They blur at the edges. Fade under the weight of daily life. Or worse, they grow too loud in your mind—too perfect to risk ruining by writing…
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Writing When You’re Not Writing
Your brain doesn’t stop just because your fingers aren’t on the keyboard.
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Leave Yourself a Trail
Scrolling back and fixing things interrupts flow. Here’s how to avoid it.
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The Myth of the Lightning Bolt
Where Ideas Really Come From Writers love to talk about “the moment it hit me”—that flash of inspiration, that perfect idea arriving out of nowhere like a lightning bolt straight to the brain. It’s a good story. It’s cinematic. But it’s not the truth. At least, not the whole truth. Because in my experience, most…
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I Have an Idea. How Do I Start Turning That into a Book?
Your idea might not be a novel yet, but it’s where every novel begins. Something sparked. Something took hold. That’s worth something. But now you’re standing at the edge of a long road, and you’re not sure how to take the first step. So let’s talk about it.
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Writing Through the Dip
Every project has a point where it stops feeling like a good idea. At the start, you’ve got momentum. Energy. A shiny new premise that feels like it might be The One. The words come fast, or at least willingly, and there’s that sense of excitement—this time, it’s going to work. The words flow from…
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Style and Structure Are the Essence
“Style and structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.” – Vladimir Nabokov