Practical tips from authors about how to create names for your fictional characters.

What is Chekhov’s gun principle and why do you need to add it to your revision checklist?

Highlights from the 2021 ACES conference.

Plot reversals can add drama and energy to a plot that is dragging.

It can be scary to send your work to an editor, even when you know you need feedback to improve. Here are 5 tips that will help you fight the fear.

Learn how documenting your standard operating procedures can make it easier to format, publish, and maybe even write your book.

Learn how Austen uses point of view to create drama and suspense in a scene without much external action.

The value of just doing the work.

In which we see why Anne is the most Virgo of all of Austen's characters.

Austen lets Mrs. Smith say the quiet parts out loud.

Austen shows us what a difference the perfect setting can make.

The river of the plot is about to carry us to the end.

Austen's novels ostensibly end with a happy marriage, but does she ever depict one?

A new character comes on the scene to set up our final plot twist.

Austen turns up the suspense on two long-simmering subplots.

Watch Austen trash her characters as only she can.

A close reading of how Austen uses the slipperiness of omniscient narration to her advantage.

Austen stitches the broken thread of her plot back into the narrative.

Austen twists the plot and shows her characters their true selves.

Just because race is occluded in Persuasion, that doesn't mean it isn't present.