Author name: Fallon Clark

Reading Time: 12 minutesWhen writing, it’s easy to isolate and disconnect from the passion the work used to bring. Plus: over 100 brand-new advice feeds from around the web!

Reading Time: 11 minutesWhen you write your first draft, you’re telling yourself the story, as you need to hear it, to make the best sense of it. That first draft is typically when you learn about your main character’s goals and motivations, the barriers or villains that hinder their success, and what the ultimate stakes are if they don’t succeed. You also meet the rest of the cast and get to know them, understand them, see them moving about in your story world. But when you tell your story to your reader, you begin to uncover what the reader needs.

Reading Time: 9 minutesDuring February, making time to write can feel extra difficult. Prioritizing your writing, getting the right pieces in the right places, and speaking to your readers are the goals.

Reading Time: 10 minutesRegardless of industry metrics and analytics, regardless whether you’re established or debuting, through thick and thin, writers write. And in this bizarre, yet hopeful, publishing landscape, writers create their own success.

Reading Time: 9 minutesWriting and storytelling are skills anyone can learn with a little practice, the right mindset, and a bit of help. And rejection isn’t the end of your literary road as long as you keep driving ahead. That’s because rejection is a powerful tool for growth — if you let it be one.

Reading Time: 11 minutesSo, you’re sitting down at your computer or you’ve grabbed your notebook, and you’re determined to write. I’ll just check socials for a minute, you think. It won’t take long. Then a minute goes by. Five minutes. Ten. An hour. And that quick socials check turns into a rabbit hole of unproductivity such that you

Reading Time: 11 minutesIn the digital age where authenticity reigns supreme, character transformation is a major tool for bridging the gap and creating an immersive, emotionally intelligent connection between character and reader. And at the heart of your character’s transformation is their character.

Reading Time: 11 minutesWhen writing your book, it’s easy to get bogged down by craft and stylistic advice, storytelling methods, and research on genre conventions, structural maps, reader trends, and more. But if you’re writing a book, especially if this is your first book, it may be best to put away the advice while you’re getting that first draft down on paper.

Reading Time: 10 minutesHow to make New Year resolutions — and more than 100 links to writing advice articles, podcasts and videos from around the web.

Reading Time: 8 minutesIf you find your book vision is more of a hazy, amorphous blob than a fully thought out story, it may be time to get back to basics to find gaps to fill.

Reading Time: 11 minutesThis time of year, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and overloaded. For all the “most wonderful time” soundbites, it’s often the most stressful time of year for many. Get insight into how skill-stacking and focus can help you maintain your progress through the holidays and beyond.

Reading Time: 9 minutesFocusing all your energy on what the reader wants or needs is exhausting. And while you’re writing, it’s often not worth the effort. You simply cannot know exactly how another person will perceive your story. But there’s one thing you can know with absolute certainty: Do you, author, like your book?

Reading Time: 9 minutesIf December brings about reflection in you, you, too, may be undergoing profound change as you decide what you want out of your life and how best to go ahead and get it. While undergoing fundamental changes in who we are is a part of many creative professional pursuits, the change process itself can come with its own set of gifts to help us get through the tumult of change.

Reading Time: 9 minutesAn ambition to write or edit a book without clear and quantifiable goals and a path to achieve those goals — whatever that looks like for each of us — is just a wish. And wishes don’t write drafts. Getting back on track doesn’t need to come with a headache, though.

Reading Time: 8 minutesIf you find yourself spinning your writerly wheels without gaining traction, it may be time to step back from the project at hand. But this doesn’t mean you stop writing. Instead, it’s time to learn about storytelling, content structure, or other aspects of writing from life itself.

Reading Time: 7 minutesWe’re just over halfway through National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and if you’re anything like the authors with whom I work, you may be hitting that mid-novel slump. And getting beyond the slump becomes the primary goal. So, how do you keep writing when the writing is hard?

Reading Time: 4 minutesOne of the most common bits of advice given to authors is to humanize their characters. Give them flaws. Dreams. Fears. Desires. Yada, yada, yada. But if you’ve filled out character profile sheets, you know how little value this piece of advice actually provides.

Reading Time: 3 minutesWhether it’s imposter syndrome that has you down, the stress of balancing writing against all the other things we do each day, feeling a lack of inspiration, or something else, I want to help you get out of your own way so you can complete your story and gain that coveted sense of achievement of having crossed off “write a book” from your bucket list.

Reading Time: 4 minutesHave you ever sat down with your computer or your notebook, fingers or pen poised at the ready as you set forth on your storytelling adventure, yet the words refused to flow?

Reading Time: 10 minutesNational Novel Writing Month is just around the corner and many of us are ideating or planning for the big 50K. But if you find yourself doing anything at all except what you want to get done within the next week and a half, check out these articles about balancing priorities and meeting goals and pick up a few tips to get through writer’s block, too.

Reading Time: 11 minutesWe subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, read about how to make your characters more human.