by kingdompen | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Encouragement
Grab a paper and pencil, because this isn’t an article you can just read and ignore. Instead, you’ll be forced to examine yourself and identify what’s hindering you from writing the book you dream about. Because, let’s face it, most of us...by kingdompen | Jun 26, 2017 | Articles, Theme
My favorite sci-fi stories always seem to be tight. The sci-fi elements, the characters, the world, and the theme are all closely intertwined. Whether the stories are relatively small scale (the movie Arrival) or full-blown trilogies (Jill Williamson’s The Safe...by Josiah DeGraaf | Apr 29, 2017 | Articles, Theme
Few flaws can kill a story’s theme and message as much as blatancy. We’ve all read books that constantly hit us over the head with the author’s beliefs. Afterwards we resolve never to do this as authors. But then we sit down to write and realize how easy it is to make...by Josiah DeGraaf | Feb 27, 2017 | Articles, Characters, Theme
A character arc is the process by which your protagonist grows and changes over the course of a novel, and thus it is the foundation for building your novel’s theme. Many writers have already expounded on how you should weave a character arc throughout a novel. But...by Josiah DeGraaf | Feb 17, 2017 | Articles, Plot
One of my favorite classes that I took at a homeschool co-op during high school was a chess class taught by a local grandmaster. I learned many different chess openings, position tactics, and endgame tactics, all of which improved my chess strategy. One day the...