How can I write an engaging novel?
Last updated 2024 April 10 | More of my big questions
Sub-questions
- What makes a story engaging?
- What makes characters compelling?
- What process should I follow for writing?
Bookshelf
Related books I’ve read since 2021. Links go to my book review.
Structuring Your Novel Workbook
by
2022-10-30
2k to 10k* 👍
by
2022-09-18
Story Fix
by
2022-06-
Videos + Podcasts
- Planning for a summer of writing
- Watched How I Edit a First Draft
- Watched How to Work with Beta Readers
- Watched Getting Back To The Joy Of Writing
- Watched Getting Excited About My Novel Again
- Watched Plan Your 2023 Writing Year
- Watched How to Plot Your Novel
- Creating characters with the enneagram
- Watched Plotting Act One
- Watched planning your series for NaNo
- Watched How to Write a Novel from Scenes
- Watched plan your novel for NaNoWriMo
- Watched How to Plan a Series: Arcs
- Watched How to Plan a Series: Planning
- Listened to Lindsay Buroker Interview
- Listened to Starting a Series from Scratch
- Listened to Learning to Reverse Engineer a Book
- Listened to Writing Series That Sell
- Listened to How to Launch a Successful Book Series
- Flights of Foundry: Ways to Decolonize Your Fiction Writing
- Flights of Foundry: Sensitivity Reading as Developmental Editing
- Flights of Foundry: Where to Start and How to Navigate Developmental Editing
Articles
Articles or longer responses I’ve written.
- Learning how to revise a novel ⭐
- Challenging myself playfully ⭐
- Mid-month December 2022 writing check-in
- Start of December 2022 Writing
- National Novel Writing Month 2022 recap
- SFF writing critique method
- Writing Metrics and Capitalism ⭐
Notes
Bookmarks and quotes from articles I’ve read.
Editing
- Editing as pattern making
- If the story sags, tighten the timeline
- Notes from Intuitive Editing
- Make a punch list of edits
- Developmental edits on your own work
- Punch list your book revision
- Write yourself an edit letter
- Writing Cruft to Cut
- Consolidating Stories
Worldbuilding
- Imbue world building with a sense of history through embedded mini stories
- Imbue physicality with meaning in stories
- Combine multiple real places for rich imagined ones
- Reveal character and set vibes with place description
- Where to put focus in worldbuilding
- 5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Details to Enrich Settings
Process
- Thinking time is writing time
- Learn to tolerate discomfort
- Writing Your Fears Into Fiction
- Skip the boring parts
- Daydreaming as a skill for writing
- Sometimes Writer’s Block is Depression
- Reverse Outlining to Gauge the Status of a Draft
- An Indie Author’s Writing Timeline
- The first book in a successful series
- Draw inspiration from, not be influenced by
- Article pairing: creative intake
- Getting Unstuck in Your Story
- The Goldilocks word count
Craft
- Meaning through truthfulness in language
- Writing engaging action sequences
- 4 levels of story conflict
- Writing a story that hooks readers
- Ways to raise the stakes
- Defining stakes that matter in your story
- Framing obstacles versus conflict
- Creating Inventive Metaphors
- A Playful Writing Exercise for Description
- Making Tension Clear
5 replies on “Writing Fiction”
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