How to Listen to Your Manuscript Without Reading It Aloud
By: Chong Wang | Posted on October 30, 2026
We recently explored how reading your manuscript aloud exposes problems that are easy to miss on the page, but the fact is that reading an entire book aloud takes time and energy. Not to mention how hard it is to maintain your focus from the first chapter to the last. Fortunately, there are other ways to hear your work that don’t require you to do all the talking yourself. In this week’s guest post, Chong Wang looks at the practical side of listening to your manuscript, offering ways to get many of the same benefits without straining your vocal cords. By turning your book into audio and fitting listening sessions into your daily routine, you’ll more easily catch awkward sentences, repeated words, and dialogue that doesn’t sound quite right. With the right tools, you can even do so without uploading your unpublished manuscript to an unknown website. Whether you write… Read More >
What “Obsession” Can Teach Authors About Story Structure
By: Ginger | Posted on October 23, 2026
Giving your character exactly what they want might sound like a happy ending, but what if doing so is the catalyst for all their troubles? In this week’s blog, Ginger takes a seasonal detour into horror by analyzing the surprise blockbuster Obsession, a movie whose unsettling premise offers useful lessons for authors across genres. Because beneath the scares lies a carefully constructed relationship between character, desire, and consequence that can help writers understand what makes a story compelling. Ginger explores how the film builds tension by gradually exposing the truth behind its protagonist’s desires and questions whether anyone should be rooting for him. That growing gap between who we initially believe a character to be and what their choices reveal offers valuable insight into ways of connecting plot progression with character development. For authors writing any story in which a character’s wants collide with what they actually need, Obsession offers… Read More >
What Frasier Can Teach Authors About Memorable Characters
By: Ginger | Posted on October 16, 2026
Memorable characters can keep readers coming back even when the stories themselves follow familiar patterns. Their interpersonal rivalries and individual idiosyncrasies shape reader expectations, while each new situation still offers a chance to surprise the audience. In this week’s blog, Ginger explores why Frasier remains funny thirty years later, and what its lasting appeal can teach authors about building characters whose relationships keep generating compelling storylines. Following his recent look at the rules behind Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ginger explores how a very different approach can work just as well when writers commit to it. The key is remaining consistent with the rules you’ve defined for your characters and resisting the temptation to change their behavior simply to make a scene work. Adhering to a strict set of rules can feel confining, but as long as you fully commit to them, you may find those boundaries become one of… Read More >
What Star Trek: TNG Teaches Authors About Writing Books That Last
By: Ginger | Posted on October 2, 2026
A clever hook can get readers to pick up your book, but what makes them want to read it again years later? For authors trying to build a lasting readership, that distinction matters, especially when chasing the latest trend can seem like the quickest way to attract attention. There are few franchises as enduring as Star Trek, and some of that longevity can be traced to the rules originally imposed on its writers. This week, we’re looking specifically at Star Trek’s The Next Generation (TNG) and how its approach to storytelling can help authors give their books similar staying power. As Ginger explains, the heart of the TNG approach was the mandate to create drama without relying on disputes between the main characters, which pushed the writers to build compelling storylines that embraced the science fiction heart of the show. Comparing that approach with the more novelty driven episodes of… Read More >
Your Book Sounds Different Out Loud
By: Jimmy MacGregor | Posted on September 25, 2026
As authors, it’s easy to become blind to problems in our own writing. After reading and revising the same pages again and again, our brains just start to fill in the rhythm, emotion and meaning we intended to add. That’s why awkward sentences, repeated words, and unnatural dialogue can so easily slip past us unnoticed. But as author and audiobook narrator Jimmy MacGregor discovered, these problems become much harder to ignore when you read your manuscript out loud. In this week’s guest post, Jimmy explains how working behind a microphone changed the way he approaches his own books, from recognizing when dialogue doesn’t sound quite human to questioning whether a character’s emotions and distinctive voice have truly made it onto the page. In Jimmy’s experience, reading a manuscript aloud is one of the most revealing stages of the editing process, as it exposes weaknesses that silent revisions often miss, providing… Read More >
How to Keep Technology From Dating Your Novel
By: Ginger | Posted on September 11, 2026
Technology can make a story feel immediate and authentic, but it can also date a book faster than almost anything else. References to popular platforms, cutting-edge gadgets, and specific devices may seem perfectly natural today, but can become distractingly obsolete by the time readers discover your work. That doesn’t mean authors should avoid technology altogether, but simply that they should use it carefully to avoid unnecessarily tying their stories to a particular moment in time. This week, Ginger looks at how authors can incorporate technology into their stories without quickly dating them. By focusing on what technology does, the problems it creates, and the human consequences of using it, authors can keep their fiction feeling contemporary without sacrificing its longevity. From avoiding unnecessary brand names to recognizing when period-specific details can add authenticity, these practical strategies can help ensure technology serves your characters and story without drawing too much attention… Read More >
Timeless Fiction Starts With Contemporary Issues
By: Ginger | Posted on September 7, 2026
While steering clear of contemporary issues and events may seem like the best strategy to ensure your novel doesn’t become dated, many of the books still read decades after publication did exactly the opposite. By writing about the fears, conflicts, and changes happening around them, authors who weren’t afraid to engage with the issues of their day created stories that continue to feel surprisingly relevant generations later. This week, Ginger looks at a few examples of these timeless books and explains why today, self-published authors in particular shouldn’t be afraid to let the real world find its way into their fiction. Whether you’re writing romance, thrillers, science fiction, or any other genre, grounding your story in the issues and experiences that feel urgent today can add depth and authenticity to your fiction without necessarily tying its relevance to the present. Not long ago, I was on a plane to say… Read More >
Write Your Book Blurb One Piece at a Time
By: Morgan Lee Clasper | Posted on August 28, 2026
Writing a novel and writing a blurb may both involve putting words on a page, but the skills involved are surprisingly different. That’s why so many authors have no trouble writing an entire book, but end up staring helplessly at a blank screen when it comes time to describe that book in just a couple hundred words. A blurb is more sales copy than anything else, and the skills needed for writing short and catchy advertising copy are very different from those needed to write a novel. Morgan Lee Clasper has written thousands of blurbs for authors, which is why we were delighted when he offered to put together this article filled with tips and techniques for busting through the dreaded Blurb Block. By using what he refers to as the Puzzle Method, Morgan believes the best way to build your blurb is by breaking the task into small and… Read More >
What 007 First Light Teaches Authors About Character Development
By: Ginger | Posted on August 21, 2026
There can be a temptation in certain genres of fiction to make the hero exceptionally capable, confident, and independent. After all, those qualities are often exactly what make them so exciting to read about. But push those traits too far and they can become limitations. A hero who rarely fails has little room to grow, while one who never needs anyone else has fewer opportunities to form the relationships that give their successes or failures emotional weight. Flaws and vulnerabilities aren’t simply imperfections to overcome, but some of the most useful tools an author has for making readers genuinely care about what happens next. James Bond is a shining example of this. The famously polished secret agent is confident, capable, independent, and always ready with the right move. But that doesn’t leave much room to grow, or give other characters as many opportunities to play meaningful roles in his journey…. Read More >
The Most Personal Stories of Grief Feel Universal
By: Ginger | Posted on August 14, 2026
Grief is one of the most universal human experiences, which means countless stories have already been written about it. Yet for an author with their own experience of loss, that shouldn’t be a reason to avoid the subject. In fact, the details that make your grief uniquely yours may be exactly what allows your writing to connect so deeply with someone else. The most powerful stories about loss don’t try to capture grief in general, but instead explore it through one person, one relationship, and one absence. When written with honesty and specificity, readers can recognize something of themselves within that experience, even if the finer details don’t completely align. This week, Ginger explores that contradiction through his own recent loss and some of the books that helped him process his grief. Along with explaining why writing about your specific experience, rather than grief in the abstract, can be more… Read More >
