The Writing Process

Most popular posts

When excavating photographs and old memories one may find what they need in memoir ideas for their next stories

Memoir Ideas: Finding the Story Only You Can Tell

Some writers believe you need to have lived a dramatic life in order to write a great memoir, but that’s...

A man holds a duke by the hair with a knife to suggest a sometimes simple and violent heart of a central conflict. More quickly identified.

Central Conflict

Though you may love and care about your protagonist, there needs to be a central conflict in your story. You...

A controller below a series of puzzle pieces suggests that the controlling idea leads a writer through their narrative an an audience to the heart of the story's controller

Controlling Idea

Some stories explore universal themes like belonging or ambition, while others arrive with something very specific to say. The latter...

A woman looks at floor plans with two people looking over her shoulder to suggest visual similarity to plot development

Plot Development: 3 Main Elements

Good plot development doesn’t rush or drag. It doesn’t stumble or take detours, nor does it feel contrived. A good...

A woman yawns at her desk to suggest that passive voice misuse makes her very sleepy

Passive Voice Misuse

You may have heard the conventional wisdom that passive voice misuse means it should be stricken from your writing entirely....

A sign says please do not use quotation marks for emphasis to humorously suggest that quoting poems correctly is quite important

How to Quote a Poem 

Writers often quote a poem within their own work. This can help to set the tone, build deeper thematic connections,...

An image of footballers all watching in amazement as a soccer ball flies into the goal, to invoke the theme: "equipped with these tools, any author can achieve their writing goals and stun those around them."
Blog
Alan Watt

Writing Goals

What are your writing goals? Do you have dreams of winning the Pulitzer prize? Writing a bestseller or an Academy Award winning

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A woman whose style of singing sets her apart from the crowd is a simple and effective metaphor for how to visualize the ways to describe a voice for characters to be distinguished from one another easily
Blog
Alan Watt

Ways to Describe a Voice

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called the human voice “the organ of the soul.” Writers must become skilled organists to differentiate and describe the

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Tips for writing a novel depicted by the messiness of a workspace — food, coffee, and a place to keep all of those things.
Blog
Alan Watt

Tips for Writing a Novel

Master these tips for writing a novel by embracing messy first drafts and creative warmups. Learn how to silence your inner critic and finish.

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Window with a frosted glass filter on it that stops the viewer from seeing the beautiful outdoors
Blog
Alan Watt

Filtering

Filtering will disengage any good reader. Experiment with your sentences and you can cut down on this bad habit to hook your reader.

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Recent posts

An image of a woman smiling while scrolling on her phone with a coffee in hand suggesting austerity, enjoyment, peace from looking at writing memes

Writing Memes: Why Writers Love Sharing Them (And What They Secretly Teach Us)

If you spend enough time with writers on social media, you’ll soon learn one thing — we enjoy writing memes....

Turkish planes fly in formation to signify strength and might in the form of blitzkrieg writing

Blitzkrieg Writing: How to Outrun Your Inner Critic  

Blitzkrieg is not a word typically associated with the quiet, solitary act of writing. It conjures up images of brute...

A woman with her head sunk into a pile of books is a visual simile for the author reading this article to learn overcoming procrastination

Overcoming Procrastination: How to Get Out of Your Own Way

There’s a quiet moment every writer knows. You sit. Open the page. The cursor blinks . . . waiting. Then...

An image of footballers all watching in amazement as a soccer ball flies into the goal, to invoke the theme: "equipped with these tools, any author can achieve their writing goals and stun those around them."

Writing Goals

What are your writing goals? Do you have dreams of winning the Pulitzer prize? Writing a bestseller or an Academy...

A woman whose style of singing sets her apart from the crowd is a simple and effective metaphor for how to visualize the ways to describe a voice for characters to be distinguished from one another easily

Ways to Describe a Voice

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called the human voice “the organ of the soul.” Writers must become skilled organists to differentiate and...

Image of the caucasus mountains used to visualize the 10,000 hour rule and how it can be applied to you, above in the background are high mountain peaks certainly worth climbing but in the foreground is a lake that suggests a serenity and calm in the achievement of joy

10,000 Hour Rule on Mastering Skills

“It takes 10,000 hours to truly master anything. Time spent leads to experience; experience leads to proficiency; and the more...

A visual metaphor for how an author chooses how many words in a chapter there 'ought to be. The language itself is like a large crop field, and those selected for a novel are like a great harvest of produce, from which one must batch together sections of produce to cordon into chapters.

How Many Words in a Chapter?

Authors often struggle to figure out when to add chapter breaks and how to properly split up their novel or...

Different writing styles featured image from the 1600s, painting by Gabriël Metsu used to depict a very royal feeling to writing

A Look at 5 Different Writing Styles

Just as your characters each have a distinct voice, every writing style carries its own purpose, logic, and effect. Knowing...

Featured image for a worldbuilding template for writers, what process of inquiry is necessary in order to build a compelling world that mirror's the author's own inner realms

Your Worldbuilding Template for Fiction

Organize your writing process with this comprehensive worldbuilding template. Define the details of your world as a starting point to...
Tips for writing a novel depicted by the messiness of a workspace — food, coffee, and a place to keep all of those things.

Tips for Writing a Novel

Master these tips for writing a novel by embracing messy first drafts and creative warmups. Learn how to silence your...
Image depicting the lightness and ease of how to become a better writer, a multifaceted question that starts with planning and goes through organizing your work and eventually making it easier to give yourself the permission to write

How to Become a Better Writer

How to become a better writer? Establish a consistent routine that prioritizes showing up. Practice, rest, and refill your creative...
Window with a frosted glass filter on it that stops the viewer from seeing the beautiful outdoors

Filtering

Filtering will disengage any good reader. Experiment with your sentences and you can cut down on this bad habit to...
How long does it take to write a book, a question answered only by time given...

How Long Does it Take to Write a Book?

"How long does it take to write a book" is a question of daily schedule. A solid outline and forward...
creative writing

What is Creative Writing? How to Shape Ideas into Art

Creative writing invites writers to move beyond facts and formulas, using imagination and craft to shape ideas into compelling stories....

how to start a story

How to Start a Story: Crafting Openings That Captivate

In the best stories, the reader’s attention keeps in sync with the rhythm of the prose. It’s like a snowball...

stream-of-consciousness

Stream-of-Consciousness Writing: Tips for Creative Expression

There’s rhythm in prose. The rhythm might be intentionally terse, like a Charles Bukowski novel, or dense and languid like...

morning pages

Morning Pages: A Daily Habit to Boost Creativity

“Morning pages” is the term coined by Julia Cameron in her work The Artist’s Way used to describe the habit...

how to start writing a book

How to Start Writing a Book: The No-Fluff Starter Guide

Welcome! And congratulations! If you’re reading this, you are about to begin a creative journey that can bring satisfaction and...