Writing Advice Posts: A Handy Reference Guide
(Updated 5/19/18) Hey all, I’ve got quite a few writing advice posts & answered Asks on my blog at this point, so I’m making this reference guide to make it easier to find what you’re looking for. Hope it helps!
8 Ways to Improve Your Writing
10 Best Books About Writing Fiction
How to Spot Bad Writing Advice: 6 Red Flags to Look For
“Show Don’t Tell”? Not Always. Here’s When to Use Summary
More about starting stories
The Writing Process, Writer’s Block, & Inspiration
How to Train Yourself to Write Faster
Just a friendly reminder that creativity is difficult to quantify.
Quick Writing Tip: Make a Note to Your Future Self in Your WIP
Quick Writing Tip: Take Notes!
Just a friendly reminder that writing is not always a linear process.
Quick Cure for Writer’s Block: Lower Your Expectations
Your Skills May Need Time to Catch Up to Your Vision
It’s Okay to Experiment and Be Weird As Fuck
Surround Yourself With Supporters
It’s okay to take a break.
Your First Draft is Raw Material
Writing from Your Imagination vs. Reality
Getting Bored with Your Own Writing
Doing research on topics you don’t have first-hand experience with
Journalling about your writing
Creating Character Arcs with the DCAST Method
What Does Your Main Character Want?
How to Activate Your Passive Characters, One Verb at a Time
How to Use Description to Show Character Development
How to Create a Non-Cliched First-Meeting Scene
When to identify your character’s goal
Writing about normal people with normal problems
If you’re worried about your character being too similar to someone else’s character
Describing your characters without messing up your pacing
Quick Plotting Tip: Write Your Story Backwards
Slowing Down the Pace of Your Story Without Boring Your Reader
When & how to cut a scene
If you’re good at creating characters but awful at creating plot
When you’ve plotted your story but can’t get started
Writing to Your Ideal Reader
What to write between moments of conflict
Starting a story with waking-up scene
Description, Setting, & Worldbuilding
How to Make Your Descriptions Less Boring
How to Spot an “Info-dump”
Adding Descriptions to Intense Scenes Without Messing Up Your Story’s Flow
How to Use Description to Show Character Development
Worldbuilding: How much is too much?
Modeling your fantasy world from stuff in the real world
How to Choose the Right Point of View for Your Story
A Beginner’s Guide to Multiple Point of View
6 Questions to Ask About Your Point of View
How to decide if you should use first person or third person
More point of view basics
How to Improve Your Dialogue
3 Ways to Make Your Dialogue More Interesting
Starting a story with dialogue
Are You Using Too Much Stage Direction?
Publishing & Sharing Your Work
7 Tips to Build an Audience for Your Writing
Pros and Cons of Self Publishing
Quick Publishing Tip: Don’t Bury Your Gold
How to Properly Format Your Manuscript for Publication
A warning about posting writing online that you intend to publish later
Advice for writers who are worried about people stealing their work or ideas
Getting feedback on your writing
Quick Revision Tip: Read Your Writing Out Loud
How to Keep Yourself From Editing As You Write
Are you suffering from -ing disease?
Are you Using Too Much Stage Direction?
What “Editing” Really Means
Quick Editing Tip: “That”
Quick Revision Tip: Read Faster
Free Resource Library Downloads
All of these PDFs are available to download in my Free Resource Library.
Creating Character Arcs Workbook
Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Editor Printable Checklist
Proper Manuscript Format Printable Checklist
Short Story & Novel Submission Templates
…if you find any broken links please let me know and I will fix them! xo
*I recently changed the name of my blog. All of these links should work, but if you come across a “Bucket Siler has moved!” page when clicking on a link inside an old post, there’s an easy way to find what you’re looking for: In the url, delete “bucketsiler,” write “theliteraryarchitect,” then hit return. Also, let me know about it & I will fix it :)
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