By Janice Hardy A strong plot is built on strong structure.  Goal - Conflict - Stakes. They're the engine in every scene and ...

By Janice Hardy Are you too nice to your characters?  Do you love your characters? Do you wish nothing bad would ever happen to the...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Stakes are critical to any story, because without stakes, why should readers care about what's going...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy The whole point of creating conflict and stakes is to use them. My husband and I are big fans of both co...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy A plot is just the series of choices a character makes in a story. Making a decision is one of the most impor...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy The story is why readers picked up your book.  Writing is such a strange thing. As writers, we get these c...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Point of view is one of the strongest tools writers have for crafting stories readers just can’t put down. Wh...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy The worse things get for your character, the better it is for your reader. I love doing terrible things to my...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Sequels are the emotional glue holding scenes together. Before I dive it, I’m over at The Insecure Writer’s S...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy The worst that can happen isn’t always the best thing for the plot. For many stories, the worst thing that ca...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy With so much at stake, the smart writer takes a closer look at their stakes before they send that manuscript...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy It’s a terrible feeling when the scene you’re working on grinds to a halt—and you have no idea how to get i...

By Laurence MacNaughton, @LMacNaughton Part of the How They Do It Series JH: If the protagonist succeeds right away, it makes for a very...

By Bethany Henry Part of the How They Do It Series JH: In a novel, failure is actually a good thing. Bethany Henry shares reasons why ...

By Laurence MacNaughton, @LMacNaughton Part of the How They Do It Series JH: Many novels fail because the protagonist doesn't have...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to your protagonist is the worst thing for the story, too. ...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Making readers care about your story takes more than just creating likable characters. It takes making t...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Give readers a reason to care and they'll read on. Problem is, sometimes you can have all the right p...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy You hear it all the time. Make it active. Start with the action. Make sure your characters act. But we...

By Laura Lascarso, @lauralascarso  Part of the How They Do It Series Please help me welcome Laura Lascarso to the lecture hall today t...