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How To Write Shop

Articles on the craft and business of writing

Plotting

Plotting a Book Made Easy

December 10, 2018 by Lori Devoti 1 Comment
plotting a book

Plotting a book scares a lot of authors. Developing characters and planning a book outline intimidates a lot of writers as well. But, honestly, none of these things are scary. They’re fun. Really. The key to plotting a book, or planning a book outline, if that is how you prefer to think of it, is … [Read more…]

Posted in: Characters, Plotting, Writing Craft Tagged: book outline, character development, plotting method

Plotting with The Hero’s Journey

May 11, 2018 by Lori Devoti 4 Comments
plotting with the hero's journey

There are many, many ways to plot a book. But, quite honestly, almost all of them… okay the good ones… all tie back in some way to The Hero’s Journey. They may use different names for the steps or plot points. They may not ask you to come up with as many steps or plot … [Read more…]

Posted in: Plotting, Writing Craft

What is The Hero’s Journey?

May 9, 2018 by Lori Devoti 3 Comments
what is the hero's journey

What is The Hero’s Journey? It depends on who you ask. To a writer, it’s a plotting method. To fans of mythology and folklore, it’s a narrative pattern that human storytellers have followed since we had human storytellers.  Which brings us back to why writers use it so much as a plotting method. What is … [Read more…]

Posted in: Plotting, Writing Craft Tagged: plotting method, The Hero's Journey

How to Plot a Book – The W Plot

May 4, 2018 by Lori Devoti 4 Comments
the W plot plotting how to plot a book

One of the most frequent questions I get is “How do I plot a book?” The answer, honestly, is that there are tons of different ways successful writers plot (or don’t plot) books. Personally, I am a strong believer in having some kind of a plot to guide you before you start writing. I even … [Read more…]

Posted in: News & Notices, Plotting, Writing Craft

How to Write a Book: 8 Steps

March 11, 2018 by Lori Devoti 5 Comments
How to Write a book

How to Write a Book or “How do I write a book?” is the most basic and yet the most complicated question I get from other writers. For fun, I plugged this question into Google and got some really bad advice. Like starting with the names of each chapter. Maybe that works for someone??? Okay, … [Read more…]

Posted in: Characters, Plotting, Revision, Writing Craft Tagged: how to write novels, write a book
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Featured Book

Techniques of the Selling Writer 
by Dwight V. Swain

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain

Classic book on how to write books that readers will want to read!

This is one of the foundation books that all novelists should have on their bookshelf.

Get at Amazon

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Featured Book

Techniques of the Selling Writer 
by Dwight V. Swain

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain

Classic book on how to write books that readers will want to read!

This is one of the foundation books that all novelists should have on their bookshelf.

Get at Amazon


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