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How to Format a Book Like a Pro: A 5-Step Guide

Follow these formatting principles to create a professional-looking book that delivers a great reading experience—giving your book the best chance of success.

January 31st, 2025

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How to Write a Book and Get It Published in 10 Steps

If you’re looking to write and publish a book, I won’t sugarcoat it: you’ve got quite a journey ahead of you! But with a bit of creativity, determination, and knowledge of the writing and publishing process, you too can become a published author and share your book with the world. Here’s how to write and publish a book in 10 steps.

January 30th, 2025

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How to Write a Murder Mystery: 8 Tips to Captivate Readers

Writing a murder mystery is like baking a cake: you need the right ratio of suspense, clues, and red herrings, with a surprising but welcome filling hidden in the center. In this post, I’ll walk you through all the ingredients you need to cook up a killer murder mystery.

January 30th, 2025

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Direct vs Indirect Characterization: How to Show and Tell

Characterization describes the way a writer or actor creates or implies a character's personality, their inner life and psyche. Two main ways to reveal your characters are direct characterization and indirect characterization. What are these character creation techniques? Read on for examples of...

January 29th, 2025

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6 Types of Antagonists in Storytelling (With Examples)

You can't have a story without someone (or something) opposing your main character. In this post, we'll dive into six types of antagonists, with examples from literature and film.

January 29th, 2025

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55 Positive Character Traits - And How to Use Them

Think of your favorite fictional character, and try to describe why you like them in just a few words. Maybe they’re strong, friendly, and wise; or perhaps they’re honest, resourceful, and passionate — no matter what combination of characteristics it is, odds are you've identified something fundamental that makes their personality compelling.

January 27th, 2025

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How to Develop a Story: 9 Steps to an Amazing Draft

So you want to be a storyteller, eh? Well, whether you’re an aspiring novelist or a seasoned writer, mastering the basic elements of storytelling is key to capturing your audience’s attention and imagination. In this guide, I’ll show you my favorite method for coming up with ideas and spinning them into a workable story.

January 24th, 2025

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What Is Narrative? 9 Narrative Types and Examples

Every story has a voice, a perspective, and a particular way it unfolds — in other words, a narrative. Choosing the right type(s) of narrative for your story is crucial to its success. In this post, we’ll look at nine of the most common narrative types, how you might use them, and an example of each.

January 23rd, 2025

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NowNovel Has a Brand-New Look

Hello NowNovel readers! If you’re seeing this, it means that NowNovel is now under new management, complete with a brand-new design. But don’t worry, all NowNovel’s previous blog content will still be available right here — with the addition of some exciting new resources.

December 10th, 2024

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The Rise of Romantasy: Love in Enchanted Worlds

It is not many authors that walk into a New York City bookstore to be greeted by screaming fans. But that’s exactly what happened with romantasy author Sarah J Maas in February 2024. Just before midnight she surprised fans waiting for the imminent publication of latest novel, House of Flame and ...

October 7th, 2024

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Writing well-developed female characters

Does your story containing female characters pass the Bechdel test? Never heard of it? Simply put the Bechdel test is a way of evaluating whether or not a film or any other work of fiction portrays women in a way that is sexist or characterized by gender stereotyping. To...

August 26th, 2024

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The rise of eco-fiction: a literary response to environmental crisis

The world is getting hotter and fiction writers’ responses to environmental and climate change are heating up too. While not a new genre, its rise can be dated to the 1960s and 1970s, more and more novels and non-fiction works now deal with the impact of this climate crisis. Eco-fiction is on th...

July 29th, 2024

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