Writing Guides

Scene Settings are critical pieces of the puzzle that will eventually make up your entire novel. It might be new novel settings that you require or maybe ramping up current scene locations that are not fitting snugly into the rest of your plot.

As an aspiring novelist you need to ensure your reader can relate to your character. Your reader needs to know the depth of emotion being experienced. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi's Emotion Thesaurus explains that as emotional beings, feelings propel us. They drive our choices, determine who we spend time with, and dictate our values. Emotion also fuels our communication, allowing us to share meaningful information and beliefs with others.

  It’s a writer’s job to create compelling characters who can withstand life’s fallout without giving up. But building authentic, memorable heroes is no easy task.To forge realistic characters, we must hobble them with flaws that set them back while giving them positive attributes to help them achieve their goals. So how do writers choose the right blend of strengths for their characters—attributes that will render them admirable and worth rooting for—without making it too easy for them to succeed?


  Crafting likable, interesting characters is a balancing act, and finding that perfect mix of strengths and weaknesses can be difficult. But the task has become easier thanks to The Negative TraitThesaurus. Through its flaw-centric exploration of character arc, motivation, emotional wounds, and basic needs, writers will learn which flaws make the most sense for their heroes, villains, and other members of the story’s cast. 

  Drawing on the unique resources of the Oxford English Dictionary and offering coverage of over 6,000 slang words and expressions from the Cockney 'abaht' to the American term 'zowie', this is the most lively and authoritative dictionary of slang from the 20th and 21st centuries. There’s no end to the ‘mind-blowing’ power of Modern Slang. As a mouse is electronically wired to a laptop so too will this dictionary become an intravenous drip to a writer. Hey ho, writers and authors ... read on! 

 Roget's has always been a writer's second hand so this Roget's Super Thesaurus is a perennial favorite among writers. 

For a story to be successful, it must come alive on the page. With 'Description & Setting', writers will learn how to make every detail count as they create believable people, places and events.

No matter the genre, your characters must be realistic and credible in order for your fiction to work. We know that for a hard-core fact. In this series of building believable characters we are determined to arm you with the knowledge and characteristics of human nature.

Think of Scarlett O’ Hara from Gone With The Wind or Scout Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird. They never ever lived and they’ll never die. Yet Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee made their characters so believable they became immortal.In our special featured series on building fictional characters we are building a reference so you can create characters who think, love, hope, cry, feel pain and even inflict pain.