Check your Story Pulse book cover - teal with a drawing of the heartbeat line and the heart
Check Your Story Pulse

be true to your story

Characters

three wooden figurines in movement, each holding a blue cocktail umbrella

How to Introduce a Character Without Falling Into Clichés

Introduce your characters with purpose and meaning. Find out how.
A movie clap board under a camera with a tipped popcorn bucket in the background

The Roses: A Study in Emotional Storytelling

A dark comedy breakdown for writers who crave deeper craft.
A dark stage with two stage lights, one from each corner, meeting in the middle

When Characters Go Off-Script (and Why You Should Let Them)

Discovery scenes are short, exploratory scenes you write to uncover your characters’ true motivations. Here's how to use them.
A portrait of a White person with a red question mark in place of the head.

Who is Driving Your Story?

Are you sure you've chosen the right protagonist for your story? Here's how to check.
Two miniature people sitting on top of books. The woman has a ponytail and a yellow dress and is facing the man who is turned away. He has shot brown hair and a blue vest.

Don't Sabotage Your Hero: Common Protagonist-Crafting Errors

Avoid sabotaging your protagonist. Here's how.
A mini figurine of a female explorer, sitting on a pile of books, looking through a telescope

Plot or Character?

On why all fiction is character-driven, but some stories have a stronger plot element.
A mysterious house in the dark with yellow windows and fool moon above

The Setting as a Character

Settings are travel tickets and if you treat them as a character, they will do a lot of the heavy-lifting in your story.
Close up image of a young White woman with short hair and brown eyes, direct gaze at the viewer

Get to Know Your Characters

Characters are the door to reader's heart. But to make them relatable or interesting, you have to get to know them very well.
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