For three years I kept a secret from almost everyone in my life. My friends, family, my writing community, even my agent. (Only my husband knew what I was up to.) Why all the secrecy? Well, I wanted to try an experiment and I wanted to do it just for me. Without any pressure  … Read more

  Did I tell you about the the time I spent three months revising a single beat in my novel? Not three months revising the novel. Three months revising one beat. Of my twenty-first novel. The book was my murder mystery, How to Write a Murder (One dead body, seven mystery writers, and they all  … Read more

Here’s something that might surprise you: we writers don’t just write when we’re sitting at our desks. Our brains are always working on our stories—detangling plot snags, filling holes, connecting threads—even when we’re doing other things. Like washing dishes, walking the dog, or standing in line at the grocery store. Scientists call this process “idea  … Read more

When writers ask me, “How do I know if my story is any good?” I always give them the same answer: Send it to a critique partner. As writers, we’re often too close to our stories to see them clearly. What feels perfectly obvious to us might be confusing to readers. Meanwhile, plot holes we  … Read more

One of the biggest mistakes I see writers make when writing a novel is trying to go it alone. Yes, writing is, by nature, a solitary endeavor, but it doesn’t have to be lonely. In fact, I’d argue that the more you surround yourself with supportive people during the writing process, the easier it gets.  … Read more

Chapter 12 of my book Page One to Done to all about defining realistic goals for completing your first draft and using them to track your progress and stay in flow. If you’re following the exercise on page 160 to define your goals, you can use this handy calculator to do all the math for you!  … Read more

After two long years, the secret is finally out! I WROTE A MURDER MYSTERY! This was a brand-new genre for me (and my first novel for adults since 2009!). It started out as just an experiment. To see if I could write a mystery novel. What resulted was probably the most enjoyable two years of my  … Read more

I’m beyond thrilled to share some huge news: my next writing craft book is coming in 2026 from Hay House Publishing! PAGE ONE TO DONE: Finish Your Novel in 30 Days with the Fast Drafting Method If you’ve ever struggled to finish a first draft (and let’s be honest, who hasn’t?), this book is for  … Read more

It’s here! Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel is now out in the world and in this post, I’m thrilled to share all the juicy details. Are you ready? Let’s dive in! First off… There’s a new Save the Cat book? Yup, in case you haven’t heard, there’s a new Save the Cat!  … Read more

My first official copy of SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A YA NOVEL has arrived! Of course, I couldn’t do just a regular unboxing video. See how many of Save the Cat! references you can catch!   Also, don’t miss out on your chance to nab 5 Bonus Beat Sheets (100 pages of extra content) when you preorder  … Read more

  In one of my recent office hours, someone told me they were struggling to find time to write. Life had gotten chaotic and unpredictable and they were feeling overwhelmed by the thought of abandoning their story in the middle. This question really hit home for me because recently—over the past two weeks—I’ve had to  … Read more

I want to share you with a perspective that I wish someone would share with me every time I’m stuck in the middle of a draft (be it the 1st or 10th) and it isn’t working or the whole dang thing is feeling endless or pointless or wasted. It’s a perspective I think I’ve always  … Read more

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about goals once or twice (or more). Yes, I loooooove to talk about goals. I even wrote a blog post called “10 Fixes to the Most Common Plot Problems” (and spoiler! The answer to ALL 10 is GOALS!) Goals give our stories  … Read more

Want to know what really goes on in my head when I’m writing a book? This video comes pretty close! I hope you enjoy this “behind the scenes” peek at the making of my latest novel, Amelia Gray is Almost Okay! And if you want to continue even further down the rabbit hole, scroll down  … Read more

Since January 1st, I’ve been DEEP in revision mode for my NaNoWriMo novel (which as of now is still a secret…sorry!). But I can tell you this. It’s needed a ton of work so far! But I will say I’m having a blast revising it, possibly more so than most of my revisions. As I  … Read more

This year’s NaNoWriMo was the first year (in a long time…maybe forever?) I got to: 1) Start a new novel on November 1 (In past years, due to deadline timing, I was usually having to finish novels or just make 50k words of progress somewhere in the middle of a novel) 2) Draft a novel  … Read more

 Attention Save the Cat! Fans! I’ve got BIG NEWS!  In this post, I’m revealing all the juicy details about the next book in the Save the Cat! Series, Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel, written by yours truly, including a first look at the cover! So, yes, it’s true. I wrote another  … Read more

“Why is it called Save the Cat!?” A question I’ve been getting a lot since my novel-writing guide, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, was first published back in 2018. It’s often a confusing title because the term, “Save the Cat!” actually has very little to do with the core of the book, which is  … Read more

Maybe you’ve heard your writer friends talking about Save the Cat! and felt yourself nodding a long while secretly wondering, “What the heck is save the cat?” Maybe you read about it on a blog post or saw it mentioned in a Youtube video. Or maybe you were just searching for cute cat pictures and  … Read more

Revising can be messy. As someone who thrives on order and checklists and clean documents, unmarked documents, I’ve never liked how messy the revision process can feel. You’ve got tracked changes turning your pages into Jackson Pollack painting, comments cluttering up the margins, unfinished subplots dangling about, and torn-apart scenes strewn through your manuscript like  … Read more