Author Archives: Shea Robinson

When you’re first writing your book, it’s not going to be great. The first draft is supposed to be bad. Your writer brain and your editor brain can’t exist at the same time, so your editor brain needs to be put on silent while you tell yourself the story. That means that all your charactersContinue reading “A Writing Tip for Doing the Research”

We’ve all heard that dreaded term “character development,” but how do you actually go about achieving that? Well first, you need to intimately understand your characters. In building your character arcs, you’ll need to be able to answer the three most important questions: What do they want? How far will they go to get it?Continue reading “A Writing Tip for Crafting Character Arcs”

Dialogue makes or breaks the book. A well-written scene with carefully crafted dialogue entices the reader further. It gives insight into the characters by showing, not telling. It makes the characters come alive, jump off the page. An otherwise well-written scene with awkward or stiff dialogue loses the reader. It distances the reader from theContinue reading “A Writing Tip for Crafting Dialogue”

To better understand your characters, you need to know who’s in your story and how often they appear. Taking one character at a time, place their name in the search bar of your document. I would start with a character whose name never changes (no nicknames or titles). Start by tracking the character visually basedContinue reading “A Writing Tip to Understand your Characters”

What’s your current daydream? Chances are it’s to own your own bookstore or coffee shop. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been talking to friends when the conversation inevitably turns to the subject. Eyes become downturned, smiles attempt to be hidden but break through, voice gets quiet and sheepish, but yet we agree,Continue reading “A Writing Tip to Catch that Daydream”