Looking to brush up your writing skills or learn a new trick or two? You've come to the right place! Check back weekly for helpful tips and articles that make your writing better. 


People always ask writers where we get our ideas. Our answers are varied—conversations, song lyrics, witnessing an interaction between strangers on a bus, the particular shape and color of a piece of fresh fruit in a loved one’s hands, an old TV show barely remembered.

Life is full of sources of inspiration and...

Finding Writing Inspiration in Your Everyday Life

May 31, 2023
by Finnian Burnett

Short Story Contests: How to Beat the Odds

February 25, 2022
by Nandi Taylor

Cutting through the noise as a writer is hard. Not only are short story contests a great way to get eyes on your work, winning a short story competition can provide a much needed sense of validation, and it never hurts to make money doing what you love. Here are some tips on how to enter a short story contest that will hopefully give you the best chance for...

Approaches to Editing

February 18, 2022
by J.M. Frey

So, you’ve finished writing your manuscript. Congrats! Huzzah!

Now it’s time to turn that haphazard collection of phrases and scenes into a polished, thoughtful, and intentional novel. And how do you do that? By editing.

Editing is a small word, but it encompasses a heck of a lot of work. And it requires a completely different way of looking at...

Integrating Subplots Into Your Narrative Structure

January 30, 2022
by J.M. Frey

This post is the fifth in a series on subplots. 

Now that you've figured out what kind of subplot you’ll be writing, and who will be the star and/or narrator of it, let’s look at the technical aspects of how to integrate your subplot(s) into the structure of your main plot. The methods I’m going to highlight here are by no means the only way to do it, but they are the most popular...

Secondary Characters and Subplots

January 18, 2022
by J.M. Frey

This post is the fourth in a series on subplots.

As you’re developing your secondary plot, you'll need to start thinking about who is going to carry it. Some subplots continue to feature, or may be told from, the POV of your main character. Other subplots may focus instead on a minor or secondary character, who guides the reader through this second storyline.

It’s tempting to...

Creating Subplots

December 31, 2021
by J.M. Frey

Now that you know what a subplot is, and you’ve decided what kind you’re going to write, it’s time to figure out what shape that subplot is going to take.

What Do You Need To Accomplish?

The first step is to think about what you need this secondary plot to accomplish. You know the goals and thrust of the main plot, but what will this secondary one do to either aid or impede your...

Why You Need a Writing Group

December 22, 2021
by Nandi Taylor

When it comes to being a writer, there’s this romantic ideal of someone seated primly at their aesthetic desk, ensconced in their adorable home office, laboring away for hours a day until art emerges, but this is far from the truth. There are many people involved in the process of creating your favorite books. Editors of course, and agents, publicists, marketers. But before all that, comes a...

Types of Subplots

November 29, 2021
by J.M. Frey

Now that we know what a subplot is, let's take a look at different types of subplots and see how they work. 

Romantic Subplots

Unless the novel is a full-blown romance (where the plot of the book is firmly centred on the meeting and eventual happily ever after of your protagonist and their love interest), then any romance your characters experience in the novel is secondary...

What Is a Subplot?

November 17, 2021
by J.M. Frey

Welcome to a new article series! This time, we’ll be talking about about the structural and narrative importance of SUBPLOTS. But before we dive in, let’s figure out what a subplot actually is.

According to Dictionary.com, a subplot is:

"A secondary or subordinate plot, as in a play, novel, or other literary work; underplot.”

Great, so to know...

Pages