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

  1. How to Name Characters (Superheroes and Otherwise)
  2. How to Develop Interesting Characters– Easily!
  3. List of Character Attributes
  4. Writing Male Characters
  5. Please Avoid Modeling Your Characters on Your Friends
  6. Don’t Make Your Villains Unnecessarily Evil
  7. NEW: Why Secret Origins Usually Fail (”Leia’s my sister!?!”)
  8. NEW: How to Use Characters with Mental Disorders

These Characters Usually Kill Manuscripts

  1. Children
  2. Mentors
  3. Mary Sues (for definition, hold cursor here)
  4. Part-Time Dragons (for definition, hold cursor here)
  5. Homo Superiors (for definition, hold cursor here)
  6. NEW: Immortals

How to Improve Your Titles

  1. 10 Words that Will Probably Ruin Your Title
  2. 10 Common Mistakes of Novel Titles
  3. How to Write Titles That Sell (Novels and Chapters)
  4. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 1)
  5. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 2)
  6. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 3)
  7. Your Title is Bad… (Part 4)
  8. Your Title is Bad… (Part 5)
  9. Your Title is Bad… (Part 6)
  10. Your Title is Bad… (Part 7)
  11. Your Title is Bad… (Part 8)
  12. Your Title is Bad… (Part 9)

Structuring Your Story

  1. How to Write Strong Introductions (Novels)
  2. The Five Worst Novel Introductions
  3. Don’t Wait to Introduce Your Main Character
  4. NEW: When to Start the Story
  5. Make Your Story Interesting with Urgent Goals
  6. Common Problems with First-Person Narration
  7. Common Problems with Third-Person Narration
  8. Your Introduction Should Not Read Like an Atlas
  9. Organizing Your Plot: Five Kinds of Central Plots
  10. Story Structure
  11. Don’t Let Your Characters Walk Away from the Story

How to Avoid Common Writing Mistakes

  1. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 1)
  2. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 2)
  3. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 3)
  4. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 4)
  5. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 5)
  6. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 6)
  7. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 7)
  8. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 8)
  9. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 9)
  10. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 10)

Dialogue

  1. Avoid These Common Dialogue Mistakes
  2. Don’t Use Bad Accents
  3. Keep Your Dialogue Tight

Other Writing Mechanics

  1. How to Write Gripping Scenes
  2. Write Concisely!
  3. Eliminate Gimmicks in Your Writing
  4. Don’t Abuse “There’s”
  5. 9 Words That Should Never Start a Sentence
  6. A Few Notes on Punctuation
  7. NEW:  Make Your Story Intriguing, Not Cryptic

Editing and Refining Your Work

  1. 100 Questions to Test Your Story
  2. Style Checklist
  3. How to Make the Most of Beta Reviews
  4. How to Evaluate Your Writing with Google Analytics

Website Design

  1. How to Format WordPress Text for Your Website
  2. Organizing Your Site
  3. NEW: You Can Do Better Than Archives
  4. SOON: Picking a WordPress Theme

Marketing

  1. How to Design Strong Header Art
  2. Promotional Events that Work

Social Commentary in Fiction

  1. So You Want to be an Opinionated Author
  2. Writing About Racism
  3. How Valid is Diversity Criticism?

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