How to balance show and tell across genresKnowing how to balance show vs. tell across different genres starts with a practical question: what does the reader need to feel, understand, or suspect at…Why we love unlikable charactersReader loyalty can look completely irrational: a character lies, behaves selfishly, or treats everyone around them with contempt, and still holds attention for…Winning an agent’s attention with a strong book pitchA literary agent is not a substitute editor who reads every cold submission. They look for a book with a clear market position, a distinctive voice and a story…Writing a multi-perspective novel with distinct voicesA multi-perspective novel can give readers a wider emotional and dramatic view of a story. Each narrator may notice different details, carry a different…Understanding Royalty Statements for Authors and PublishersA royalty statement shows how money from a work has been earned, calculated and paid. For an author, it explains what the publisher owes under a publishing…Researching A Novel Without Losing The PlotResearch gives a novel texture, credibility and emotional weight. It can place a character convincingly in a particular suburb, profession, historical period…Finding the lyric thread in narrative proseLyrical prose carries some of the pressure, music and compression of verse without turning every sentence into a line of verse. The role of poetry in prose is…Crafting satisfying endings: resolutions that respect character journeysAn ending can stop the action, yet still leave a reader feeling cheated. A satisfying ending does more than explain what happened: it completes the emotional…Make every threat intimate and impossible to ignoreA thriller becomes frightening when the countdown is attached to a life we can recognise. A delayed medicine order is more urgent than a vague threat to the…Believable Romantic Tension Without the Miscommunication TrapCreating believable romantic tension that doesn’t rely on miscommunication starts with attraction shaped by competing needs. Each character should want…
