How do you make a dialogue-focused scene feel active?
Need to keep a dialogue-focused scene from feeling slow and boring? Pick up tips from this analysis of a scene from Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Dial A for Aunties.
How do you introduce a complex plot?
Learn how Jesse Q. Sutanto hooks readers while launching a complex plot and large cast of characters in Dial A for Aunties.
How do you read a novel?
Use my method to read and analyze novels in your genre to learn the writing craft secrets used by your favorite authors.
How do you plot a page-turner?
Discover the plot techniques Laura Dave uses to maximize suspense in her novel.
How do you deliver plot surprises?
Learn how to maximize the drama of plot revelations by studying the techniques used by Laura Dave.
How do you maximize dramatic irony in the opening of a novel?
See how Laura Dave uses our knowledge of the novel's hook to delay gratification, increase suspense, and turn readers into sleuths.
Advanced Zoom tips for editors
Tips and tricks for using Zoom to build connection with colleagues and clients.
How can a single point-of-view novel include multiple voices?
See how Casey McQuiston uses fictionalized primary materials to bring additional voices into I Kissed Shara Wheeler.
What can dialogue do?
Learn the techniques Casey McQuiston uses to maximize the impact of dialogue in I Kissed Shara Wheeler.
How do you hook a reader?
How do you engage and disrupt genre tropes to hook your readers?
How do you make omniscient narration fresh and modern?
Is there a place for omniscient narration, associated closely with nineteenth-century novels, in a twenty-first-century literary landscape dominated by limited narration?
How do you establish setting in historical fiction?
Learn the techniques Lauren Groff uses to introduce readers to a distant historical setting in Matrix.
Does your plot need to follow a set structure?
Learn about plot structure and the interplay between internal and external plots through an analysis of Tana French's The Searcher.
How do you get maximum value from setting and description?
Examples from Tana French's The Searcher show how to give your descriptions additional meaning and resonance.
How do you use dialogue and dialect to reveal character?
Learn how to use word choice, syntax, and dialect in dialogue to create realistic characters with examples from Tana French's The Searcher.
How do you open a mystery novel?
See how Tana French uses sentence style, summary, and suspense to pull readers into the first chapter of The Searcher.
How experienced novelists can use beta readers in the editing process
Learn how successful indie author Jane Steen, author of the House of Closed Doors Series and Scott-De Quincey Mysteries, uses beta readers as part of her revision process.
How do you balance multiple points of view?
Why and how can you use multiple point-of-view narration in your novel? We’ll analyze NK Jemisin’s The City We Became to find out.
Should your novel have a prologue?
What are the benefits and drawbacks to including a prologue in your novel? We’ll examine the prologue to N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became to find out.
What is your cover and front matter telling your reader?
A close look at the messages readers get from the title, cover, epigraph, and illustration of NK Jemisin’s The City We Became.