Episode 161 - Ways to give readers what they ...

Our first sentence's main task is to launch the reader into the story. Here's how to begin our story with a riveting opening sentence. And at the other end of the story, after all the pages how should we write the walkaway?Support the showBuy the master class. 

Not just comedy novels but rather almost all novels will benefit from humor. Here is how to exaggerate to make readers laugh. Also, avoiding dialogue tag modifiers so that our dialogue doesn't become unintentionally funny. Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a st ...  Show more

Find out about 5 core character roles within a novel, and how the purpose they serve ensures the story stays focused.Listen to find out more about:5 key character roles in fictionThe character role hierarchyWhy protagonists aren't always heroesWhy antagonists aren't always villai ...  Show more

In today’s episode, I asked five of my Notes to Novel students to share their biggest lessons learned while working through their first drafts. Here’s a preview of what’s included: 

[02:00] Kelsey Evans on how understanding her genre’s framework made the biggest d ...

In today’s Books with Hooks, Carly and CeCe critique two queries each, in the process discussing the pros and cons of epistolary novels; the #ownvoices term being retired; baiting the reader in the opening pages; having too much character description and not enough plot in the qu ...  Show more