Tips on: all writing & editing tips
STARTING with exciting story scenes
A tip about the Chase, the Call To Arms and the Betrayal
More...Idea drawers and baskets
A tip about how elves gather story ideas and save them in their hats
More...Three captains seeking the same goblet
A tip about making a story rich by creating an object that is desired for more than one reason
More...Coming Home For Christmas
A tip about the stories that come home with sons, brothers and friends
More...Read what you do not like to write
A tip about how elves change their reading to change their writing
More...Where to start when you are asked to “Write a page”
A tip about the stories that come with blank pages
More...An elven practice for writing whole stories
A tip about taking the mystery out of beginnings, middles and endings
More...Regularly search for all of the improvements
A tip about carefully tracking ALL of your accomplishments
More...Stand in the shoes of the character
A tip about taking a break as the writer and taking a turn as the character
More...How do I find a topic to write about?
A tip about making a story wish list before you begin writing a story
More...When you are writing, consider 15 minutes a long time
A tip about “story time” (where 15 minutes is a long time)
More...Better ideas come from working on the first idea…
A tip about how one story idea leads to the next
More...Have favorites for writing (and guard them carefully)
A tip about creating a good place and collecting just the right tools for writing
More...What you never expected to hear about a writing prompt
A tip about choosing to write on subjects we know
More...Or… turn yourself into a field mouse and then build the snowman…
A tip about how to make an ordinary writing prompt into something else
More...Editor’s tip: Scrape the moss off your tongue!
A tip about how to strip away clutter from your sentences
More...Editor’s tip: Think like an elf
A tip about looking at your writing from the reader’s perspective
More...Trained fingers to the rescue!
A tip about touch typing—which helps to capture ideas and make stories more readable
More...Edit like Joble
A tip about admiring a piece of writing before you look for what might need changing
More...The carrot trick (for the brain )
A tip about getting brains to write, even when they are feeling stubborn
More...Editor’s tip: Speak up!
A tip about reading your writing aloud to discover what’s working—and what isn’t
More...What to name your characters
A tip about knowing the meaning and history of a name before you select it for your character
More...Learning from each story
A tip about seeing stories as places to learn (the first in a series of tips that come from the writing of “The Waking Prince”)
More...Put stories away, to sit in the dark
A tip about putting a story away until you have almost forgotten it
More...Describing injured characters
A tip about describing the outside and the inside of an injured character
More...Battles: what are they actually about?
A tip about telling readers what the different sides stand for, before they go into battle
More...Bringing a character back to life
A tip about whether a dearly departed character should ever be brought back to life
More...Descriptions are downright delightful for readers
A tip about balancing action sentences with description sentences, so that readers can SEE more
More...Copying the masters… word for word
A tip about copying the work of masters to learn what they figured out
More...“He tripped.”
A tip about short sentences, how much they matter, and how easy they make writing feel
More...Ask an illustrator to imagine your character
A tip about seeing story characters through the eyes of an illustrator
More...When you dislike what you wrote, Chapter I
A tip about the different signals a writer may hear as he works on a story
More...