Feb 24 2008
Index: Writing Guides
This site provides writing advice. If you're writing a superhero novel or comic book, please also read our superhero writing articles.
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How to Improve Your Characters
- How to Name Characters (Superheroes and Otherwise)
- How to Develop Interesting Characters– Easily!
- List of Character Attributes
- Writing Male Characters
- Please Avoid Modeling Your Characters on Your Friends
- Don’t Make Your Villains Unnecessarily Evil
- NEW: Why Secret Origins Usually Fail (”Leia’s my sister!?!”)
- NEW: How to Use Characters with Mental Disorders
These Characters Usually Kill Manuscripts
- Children
- Mentors
- Mary Sues (for definition, hold cursor here)
- Part-Time Dragons (for definition, hold cursor here)
- Homo Superiors (for definition, hold cursor here)
- NEW: Immortals
How to Improve Your Titles
- 10 Words that Will Probably Ruin Your Title
- 10 Common Mistakes of Novel Titles
- How to Write Titles That Sell (Novels and Chapters)
- Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 1)
- Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 2)
- Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 3)
- Your Title is Bad… (Part 4)
- Your Title is Bad… (Part 5)
- Your Title is Bad… (Part 6)
- Your Title is Bad… (Part 7)
- Your Title is Bad… (Part 8)
- Your Title is Bad… (Part 9)
Structuring Your Story
- How to Write Strong Introductions (Novels)
- The Five Worst Novel Introductions
- Don’t Wait to Introduce Your Main Character
- NEW: When to Start the Story
- Make Your Story Interesting with Urgent Goals
- Common Problems with First-Person Narration
- Common Problems with Third-Person Narration
- Your Introduction Should Not Read Like an Atlas
- Organizing Your Plot: Five Kinds of Central Plots
- Story Structure
- Don’t Let Your Characters Walk Away from the Story
How to Avoid Common Writing Mistakes
- 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 1)
- 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 2)
- 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 3)
- 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 4)
- 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 5)
- 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 6)
- 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 7)
- 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 8)
- 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 9)
- 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 10)
Dialogue
Other Writing Mechanics
- How to Write Gripping Scenes
- Write Concisely!
- Eliminate Gimmicks in Your Writing
- Don’t Abuse “There’s”
- 9 Words That Should Never Start a Sentence
- A Few Notes on Punctuation
- NEW: Make Your Story Intriguing, Not Cryptic
Editing and Refining Your Work
- 100 Questions to Test Your Story
- Style Checklist
- How to Make the Most of Beta Reviews
- How to Evaluate Your Writing with Google Analytics
Website Design
- How to Format WordPress Text for Your Website
- Organizing Your Site
- NEW: You Can Do Better Than Archives
- SOON: Picking a WordPress Theme
Marketing
Social Commentary in Fiction