Does your fiction need more conflict? If you’re asking, then the answer is probably yes!  Let’s talk about conflict. We all know it’s UBER important in fiction and narrative nonfiction writing.  Conflict is what makes the storytelling wheels go round. Conflict is what keeps your reader from giving up because the story feels too easy.  … Read more

Everyone in the world wants something. Well, except maybe a few Buddhist monks who live in the mountains and meditate all day. They might not want anything. But the rest of us—we want things. We want a new job, a new car, a nicer house, to ask the cute boy to the movies, to win the  … Read more

  EDITED: This hunt has now ended! Welcome to the Spring 2020 YA Scavenger Hunt! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one book from  … Read more

A question I get a lot from novelists following the Save the Cat! plotting method is this: What’s the relationship between beats and chapters? Or in other words, how do the beats break down into chapters and vice versa? The answer, as is usually the case, is: It depends.  Super helpful, right? 😉 Well, let  … Read more

  Today we’re talking about heroes…plural. What do you do when you have multiple points of view in your novel and need to juggle multiple Save the Cat! beat sheets (and character arcs!) Here’s another question I get a lot from writers who have read Save the Cat Writes a Novel or enrolled in my Save  … Read more

Preorder BETWEEN BURNING WORLDS from any retailer and upload your receipt to receive a set of Limited Edition System Divine Collector Cards + signed bookplate and behind-the-book digital features pack (including a full Save the Cat! Beat Sheet of SKY WITHOUT STARS)! Offer ends 3/23/20.

How many times have you stared endlessly at a single word on the page, thinking, It’s close, but it’s just not the RIGHT word. Then you mosey on over to Thesaurus.com, (or if you’re old school, break out an actual thesaurus), search for synonyms of the word only to find that NONE of them are the right word either?  … Read more

Hello Fellow Laterrians! As we prepare for the launch of BETWEEN BURNING WORLDS (System Divine #2), we thought it would be fun to host a read-along of Book 1, SKY WITHOUT STARS!   Join us as we take you inside the System Divine and introduce you to the world of Laterre and our leading players:  … Read more

  Attention Teachers! I’m giving away a classroom set (20 signed paperback copies) of my latest middle grade novel, BETTER YOU THAN ME! The book is appropriate for readers 10 and up (scroll down to read more about the book.) If you’re interested in entering the giveaway, please fill out the form below. (Open to  … Read more

  Welcome to the System Divine Fan Art Challenge! We have 3 “out of this world” prize packs up for grabs (each containing a signed advance copy of BETWEEN BURNING WORLDS plus other awesome goodies!) for the three fans who come up with the most creative pieces of art, inspired by the System Divine series.  … Read more

So, you’ve just finished writing your (possibly very messy) first draft! Which means it’s time to start the revising.  When I finish a first draft I immediately start to think about my revision plan and soon (after a much-needed break!) you should too!  Here are the 5 things I focus on for my first revision  … Read more

Writing a novel can be a lot of fun. But it can also be stressful. For many people, writing a full-length book can take its toll on the mind and body. So I’ve decided to put together a list of my top 5 tips for avoiding Novel Writing Burn Out  And if you’re participating in  … Read more

All writers, at some point or another, will face this debilitating dilemma: I have an idea for a novel! But is it worth writing? If you’ve taken my Develop Blockbuster Ideas that Sell Online Course, you know that a strong idea for a novel is just as important as how well the novel is written.  … Read more

I’ve been using the Save the Cat! methodology to structure and plot my stories for more than ten years and  17 novels now. I even wrote a book on this very topic and created a Save the Cat! companion course. And yet every day, I feel like I’m still learning and expanding my knowledge about  … Read more

This tip will help you manage your list of revision tasks with efficiency (and sanity!) It’s a trick I picked up over several months of revising BETWEEN BURNING WORLDS (the sequel to my sci-fi space opera, SKY WITHOUT STARS). During the revision period of this book my co-author and I had a lot of super  … Read more

If you have a chapter that’s feeling a bit…well, meh. Try out this Writing Mastery hack! One of the best ways I’ve found to quickly power punch up a scene is to use a tactic I like to call… Hiding the Ball Basically it breaks down to this: Don’t give your reader EVERYTHING they need  … Read more

  EDITED: This hunt has ended. Thanks for playing! Welcome to the Spring 2019 YA Scavenger Hunt! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one  … Read more

To Our Future Laterrians, Joanne and I would like to invite you to participate in our official Part 1 Read-Along of SKY WITHOUT STARS! Join us as we take you inside the System Divine and introduce you to the world of Laterre and our leading players: Chatine, Marcellus, and Alouette! It’s completely FREE to participate  … Read more

MON DIEU! Check out all the amazing goodies you get when you pre-order SKY WITHOUT STARS, our sci-fi re-imagining of Les Mis…in space! This galactic swag pack comes with an exclusive full-color map of Laterre, plus a signed bookplate, bookmark, and postcard! Offer ends 3/26.

One of the hardest things a writer has to do is cut scenes from their novel that they really love. In this video, I share with you my tried and true quick test for deciding which darlings to keep and which ones to kill.  A lot of times in the drafting phase, we might get  … Read more