Have you ever written a scene that just didn’t work with your overall story, and as much as you tried, you couldn’t figure out why? Do you wonder which scenes to cut and which scenes are missing in your story?

In this article we’ll consider what exposition is. We’ll see why we can’t get rid of it altogether, and we’ll learn how brain science can help us understand when to use it and why. At the end, we’ll be a big step closer to writing novels that glide along on story-rails with the least possible friction.

Writing is work. Work is mundane. Writing is mundane work. This might sound like a bummer, but by putting in mundane, regular work, your skill will increase, your word count will add up. Put in the time, punch the clock, and you will develop as a writer. But how?

Do you love hearing writers talk about their process? I’m a total sucker for any article that promises a look inside the daily writing habits of any successful author. I secretly hope to uncover some tip or trick that will help me get my butt in the chair and help me finish my current work-in-progress.

Why writers do what we do will always be somewhat intangible—something we can’t fully explain. But we’re writers, so we’re damn well going to try.

In this episode, we offer a tiny little slice of what's inside our Story Path course: a discussion of between Rachelle Ramirez and me about the importance of audience emotion and what you can do to help create specific feelings in your audience.

At Pages and Platforms, we know how it feels to want fast and applicable solutions for story challenges. Today, we’re sharing with you one of the most useful tips and tricks we’ve found for helping our clients build, evaluate, and improve their Fantasy stories.

Rachelle Ramirez and Anne Hawley dive into how and why to distill your premise down to its essence.

If you’re writing a novel or piece of narrative nonfiction and you can’t seem to get anywhere with it, I’ll bet you dollars to dark chocolate you can’t satisfactorily answer the following question: What type of story are you telling?

What are you doing to find your audience? If I stalked you, would I be able to tell you wrote a book that deserves a place in the world?

I talk to many, many writers who want to grow their audience but don't know where to start. Hands down the most effective way to market your book is to get in front of audiences that someone else has taken the trouble to build.

Writers face a ridiculous amount of choices. But we've got to get good and making them and moving on or we'll never get anywhere.

Sue takes a look at what an author website is actually for (and it's probably not what you think). And she shares some essential dos and don'ts for author websites so you can give yours a tweak.

Settings goals is crucial for your success as an author. But there are some pitfalls to goal-setting.

There's ONE thing that sits behind of all of these obstacles that writers often don't see. This episode will clue you in to what that is and help you clear obstacles much faster.

The first episode addresses writing in the time of COVID. Is it okay to be writing right now? Is it okay to NOT be writing right now? If you want to be writing and you're not, how can you move from the couch to the writing chair?

I hope you're taking it easy on yourself during these trying times. And by "easy on yourself" I mean, I hope you're doing things that strengthen you instead of weaken you.

Here's your one-stop guide that doesn't circumvent the truth but, instead, brings the reality of pleasing the publishing world gatekeepers into sharp focus. Here are my Seven Fat Rules for securing agent representation for your next manuscript.

When I think about my most successful clients, the ones who sell the most books, have the biggest audiences and are generally awesome, there's one thing they have in common.

I've created a 7 step outline for all the components you need to do outreach successfully. We go deep into these steps and put them into practice in my group coaching programs, but I'm going to share the basics them here with you today.