storybilder blog

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. 


You’ve determined which characters should have some sort of character arc, and it’s time to start writing. But wait. What if you aren’t sure what types of arc each character should have? What if you don’t know yet how your characters are going to change throughout the story? 

That’s okay. 

Here are a few simple ways to determine how, why, and where you want your… keep reading

January 24, 2025
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February 25, 2024

Write what you know. Have you been given that advice?  Most likely. And it can be great advice. If you’re a neurosurgeon and you’re writing hospital thrillers, you have an inside scoop on the details that can make a story rich.

If you live in New York or Paris or a tiny rural town in British Columbia and you set all your stories there, you have insight into the smells,… keep reading

January 12, 2024

Before we dive into how to find your author voice, we have to ask: What the heck even is an author voice?

Years ago, when I wrote my second novel, one of my friends said they would recognize my voice anywhere. At the time, I thought it was perhaps a bad thing. Did that mean my book was predictable? Too much like the first novel? After that, I went on a hunt to figure out what voice meant… keep reading

November 12, 2023

Have you ever read a story with a setting so rich, it felt almost as if the setting was a character itself?

Some authors seem to have an innate talent for creating vivid settings. The streets feel alive, the woods seem to sing with wildlife and native flora and fauna. In fantasy settings, the readers find themselves immersed in the magical world, wholly able to believe in the strange… keep reading

October 27, 2023

Action and reaction in fiction writing are used to describe the difference between plot versus motivation or the correlation between events and consequences. 

A character chooses to do something. This in an action. They may choose to go to the coffee shop, buy a dog, send a letter to the person they’re crushing on, or even throw a cup of coffee at… keep reading

August 24, 2023

Conveying emotions in your work can be difficult, but it’s an important part of the craft. Offering insight into your characters’ feelings helps your reader develop empathy for them. When a character experiences an event, you want your readers to feel something, too. How you choose to convey your characters' emotional responses can influence the way your readers feel about your characters and… keep reading

July 24, 2023

Letting the reader into your character’s mind creates a connection. A character’s words might not always tell the whole story; a person’s thoughts reveal who they really are. If you want your readers to be invested in your characters, show your characters' complexity by revealing the inner workings of their weird and wonderful brains.

Thoughts, like dialogue, should serve a purpose. In… keep reading

June 26, 2023

Finding time to write as a busy parent can be challenging. In a previous blog post, we offered tips to help you write your novel no matter how old your children are.

Writing can feel daunting when doing it all alone or without much support. Where do you start? How do you work out a plot problem? How do you find inspiration? Fortunately, there… keep reading

May 31, 2023

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 tapping into that inspiration can take your writing to a new level. Those… keep reading

May 17, 2023

Queer is a huge spectrum and the umbrella gets larger as we humans find language for various aspects of gender identity, orientation, and ways of existing outside of the heteronormative majority. According to Statistics Canada, there are approximately 1 million folks in Canada who identify as LGBTQ+. That’s a lot of people who are looking to read about people like them. But reaching this… keep reading

April 28, 2023

Parents, does this sound familiar?

You’ve had a novel swirling around in your head for some time; characters form while you're driving in the car. Plot twists develop in the shower. Worlds and settings come to life while you prepare dinner. You sit down at your computer desk, or open your laptop and prepare to write. 

Just as you type out a few words, your child appears beside… keep reading