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In Part 1, we talked about the importance of just starting your novel and allowing yourself to write a terrible first draft. Now let's talk about one of the most important parts of the story, and how to structure it so that your readers can't get enough. As an editor, the manuscripts that fall apart in my hands almost always fall apart in the same few places. Here's what to watch for before you're deep in the weeds. Every Story Needs Someone Who Wants Something At the core

I've read thousands of first pages by now — most of them in need of some love--— and I can tell you the single biggest thing standing between most people and a finished novel isn't talent. It's about making a start and allowing yourself to write a terrible first draft. Don't Wait I meet so many aspiring writers who are waiting for some invisible threshold: more time, more confidence, a better idea, a writing degree, some accolades from the publishing industry. Or perhaps just

When I open a manuscript, I get to live a hundred lives I'll never actually live. I get to walk through a market in a city I've never visited, sit at a dinner table with a family whose traditions are nothing like my own, feel the particular ache of a grief I've never personally carried. Fiction hands me a passport with no expiration date. Or at least good fiction does.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick of talking about AI. Not because it doesn't matter — it clearly does. But honestly, as both an author and a professional book editor, I feel exhausted every time I hear my phone 'ding' with another notification that someone on Threads or Instagram just found out someone uses AI in their book. It seems like every conversation in the writing and editing world eventually circles back to the same two letters. AI, AI, AI. Because of t

A developmental editor works on the big pieces of a manuscript before anyone fusses over final wording.