craft
Craft
Filter words are quietly distancing your reader
Filter words like she saw and she felt slip a narrator between your reader and the character's experience. Here's how to spot them, and when cutting them actually helps the prose.4 min read
Craft
Why every scene needs a want and an obstacle
A scene where nothing is at stake reads like a summary no matter how well it's written. Here's the small structural fix that's usually missing underneath.4 min read
Guide
How to write dialogue that doesn't sound stilted
Stilted dialogue has a specific, fixable cause. Here's how to cut the greetings, drop the names, and let subtext do the work that real conversations already do.4 min read
Craft
Show, don't tell is bad advice half the time
Show, don't tell gets treated as an absolute rule. It isn't. Here's how to tell which moments in your novel actually need to be shown, and which ones are better told.4 min read
Craft
Pacing: the sentence-level lever nobody talks about
Structure sets the outline of pace, but sentences set the felt experience of it, and most craft advice skips past the level where a reader actually notices speed.4 min read
Guide
How to write an opening line that hooks a reader
An opening line is not there to be quotable. It sets a contract with the reader about what kind of attention to pay, and most fail by promising the wrong thing.4 min read
Craft
Subtext: what characters don't say
On-the-nose dialogue states the truth outright, and readers stop believing it. Here's how to write characters who talk around what they mean, with a before and after example.4 min read
Guide
What purple prose means, and how to fix it without going flat
Purple prose isn't just 'too many adjectives.' Here's a precise definition, a real before-and-after rewrite, and how to fix it without stripping your voice bare.4 min read
Guide
How to name your characters without breaking immersion
Four practical checks for naming characters: avoid names that look alike, that clash with your setting, that readers can't say in their head, or that spell out a character's role too soon.5 min read