If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve probably wondered if publishing a book could boost your business. I’ve been in a number of business groups since I launched my own business a few years ago, and I’ve learned a lot from these groups and from my fellow entrepreneurs.

But there’s one trap I’ve noticed a number of entrepreneurs falling into that I think keeps them from understanding how powerful a book could be for them. Today I’m going to talk about that trap, and how writing a book can be a great marketing move. Let’s go! 

Welcome to an issue of ‘first draft pharmacy’ where we discuss and hopefully solve some of your biggest writing issues. Today, we’re going to talk about something that’s often tricky for writers working on a first draft of a book: a wonky plot.

Whenever I ask writers in my program what they’re struggling with, someone always says: help, my dialogue is terrible.

Dialogue can be really, really hard to nail. So why isn’t your dialogue working—why does it read just…wrong—and what can you do to fix it? Today, I’m going to give you five tools to diagnose and fix your dialogue.

There is so much writing advice out there that it can get overwhelming. Should you open your novel with the weather? Or never open it with the weather?

Should you include a dream sequence or never include a dream sequence?

Are memoirs done? Is publishing done? Ahhh!

Today, I’m going to debunk, as in bust open, the 3 most destructive writing myths that I see causing writers to suffer.

Welcome to another issue of ‘first draft pharmacy’ where we discuss and hopefully solve some of your biggest writing issues. Today, we’re going to talk about why your characters might be falling flat.

I’m going to share 5 questions to ask yourself to figure out why and fix the problem. Let’s go! 

What makes a novel count as “literary fiction?” Is it more impressive than commercial fiction? And what’s the difference?

Today, I’m going to give you my highly opinionated and polarizing take on this question as a novelist, reader, and human being. Stick around and read till the end if you want to either yell “amen!” at me or throw something at your computer screen. Ready?

There’s nothing quite like getting to that 80% point in a book and reaching a brilliant plot twist, is there? That moment when you feel like your mind has been blown because it’s so perfect! You never saw it coming, and yet it feels right, like of course that was going to happen!

So how do you write one of these? Today I’m going to give you three strategies to help you write a killer plot twist.

If you’re anything like me and avoid conflict like it’s your career, you may have also struggled with creating real, genuine conflict in your fiction. I certainly have. Luckily for us, fiction is not real life.

How do you develop a compelling, authentic conflict in your fiction that has actual tension in it? I’m going to give you four of my favorite strategies.

Before I was a published author, I felt like I was always on the Internet googling things about writing. How many words should my novel be? What contests could I enter? What classes should I take? What was the best writing software? What about the best place to find an agent? My questions were endless.

There are so many sites out there offering advice and services to writers—today, I want to share with you my 7 favorite websites for writers and aspiring authors and why I love them so much. Let’s go!