Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Novel Writing Training Plan
The Novel Writing Training Plan
Backstory
Character
Arcs
Plot
Conflict
Story
Arc
Subplots World-
building
Narrative
Arc
The Novel-
Writing
Training
Plan
17 steps to get your
ideas in shape for
the marathon of writing
ProWritingAid
By Kathy Edens and Lisa Lepki
ProWritingAid
with guest chapter by Katja L Kaine
ProWritingAid
ProWritingAid
Introduction
So you are ready to write your novel. Excellent. If you write 500 words
each day, in 100 days, you’ll have 50,000 words. That’s a book in about
3 months. Totally do-able. Or maybe you are planning to go full-tilt and
take part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where the goal
is to get your first draft done in 30 days. Go for it!
Think of this book as your training regimen. Trying to run a marathon without taking the time to
prepare your body would be hugely difficult. Maybe not impossible, but certainly harder than if
you had spent the time getting your muscles ready. Similarly, it’s not impossible to write a book
without spending some time in advance preparing your brain for the task, but thinking through
some of the essential elements of your story will make the whole process easier.
Give yourself a couple weeks before you start writing to think through your narrative, plan out your
key plot points, flesh out your characters, and begin to build your world. This way, when you begin
your writing journey, you will have a map to follow along the way.
Turn the page, and let’s get started!
contents
Chapter 1: Start with Your Original Idea 3
Chapter 2: How to Construct a 3D Main Character 5
Chapter 3: How to Create Your Story’s World 8
Chapter 4: How to Draft Your Story Arc 11
Chapter 5: How to Create a Compelling Character Arc 13
Chapter 6: Drafting Your Plot 16
Chapter 7: How Characters Transform 20
Chapter 8: How to Use Subplots to Bring Your Whole Story Together 23
Chapter 9: Avoid These Plot Pitfalls 25
Chapter 10: Choosing Your POV—It’s Not as Easy as You Think 28
Chapter 11: Creating Compelling & Evocative Scenes 31
Chapter 12: Types of Conflict 34
Chapter 13: Using Titillating & Captivating Dialogue 37
Chapter 14: Weave Backstory Carefully & Sparingly 39
Chapter 15: Research is Not a Dirty Word…Really! 42
Chapter 16: How to Tie Everything Together… aka How to Write a Killer Ending 44
Chapter 17: The Drafts Your Novel Needs (and Why You Probably Won’t Use One Word of Your First Draft) 46
Conclusion 52
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Appendix: About ProWritingAid 53
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chapter 1 start with your original idea
In life, as in writing, there are several questions which continue to defy a single, unified opinion:
Which came first: the chicken or the egg?
Or the question for most writers is: Which came first: the plot or the characters?
Ask 20 authors how they begin their stories—either by identifying the main character or the plot
first—and the one certainty is you won’t get the same answer 20 times.
Regardless of whether you woke up one morning with an incredible plot twist for your novel, or
a fully-formed character started speaking in your mind, everyone needs a starting point for their
writing. The key is to realize that, in the best stories that resonate most with readers, plot and
character are intrinsically interwoven.
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For example, you have a mental picture of a devoted wife and mother who has structured her life
around the needs and wants of her family. You can see her, you know what she sounds like and what
her deepest fears and desires are. Now, what if she found out her husband and children were not
who she thought they were?
Your characters might end up hijacking your plot, taking it over and making it their own. But that’s
OK because you want a story with the characters and plot so finely intertwined that you can’t have
one without the other.
1 Draft your characters. You need to know who your protagonist is and what he or she wants
most and fears most. While your character is certainly going to become much more solid as you
write, you should still know the basics - likes and dislikes, any quirky little personality traits, backstory,
his or her voice, and what motivates him or her. We’ll look in more depth at crafting real-life, fully-
formed characters in the next chapter, so keep reading.
2 Draft your story’s world. You want a dynamic setting as the backdrop to your story. Knowing
where (and when) the action takes place drives characters’ decisions. Does your story take place
in war-torn France during WWII? Or does it take place in an imagined universe very different to our
own? The “where and when” help lead your characters in decision-making based on the kind of
solutions available to them. You wouldn’t set a novel in the early 1900s only to discover that your
protagonist needs new technology to help solve a problem. We’ll talk more about creating your
story’s world in Chapter 3.
3 Define your story arc. You might consider this the map that guides your main character
along the path to your desired end. The key is to realize that a map is not set in stone. Sometimes
when you start out on a journey, you take some interesting side trips along the way, but your
eventual ending point is still known. Your characters can deviate from the map when you come
across a great plot twist, but you should have a general idea of where you’re headed and how the
individual character threads and supporting subplots tie together in the end. This will give you an
idea of where things need to shake out in each chapter to keep the momentum moving forward
and your characters evolving. More on story arc in Chapter 4.
What’s next?
You probably feel ready to burst onto the page, but we’ve only just done the equivalent of
stretching our muscles. Take a break if you need it, then keep reading. In the next chapter we lay
the groundwork for creating three-dimensional, relatable characters that make your readers laugh,
cry, and want to be their best friends.
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chapter 2 how to construct
a 3d main charcter
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and weaknesses, resentments and inclinations that underlay the outer face they show the world.
Sometimes that’s a smokescreen to throw the reader off the path. When readers understand why an
MC reacts the way he or she does, you’ve created empathy for that character. And the more empathy
you can create for a character, the more readers will invest in reading.
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facing, but you can draw from your life experiences to inform your writing about what your
character is feeling. Did you have a beloved pet die when you were a kid? Channel those
emotions into your MC when something bad happens. The details aren’t important; the
human emotions of losing something cherished are.
6. Use dialogue to illustrate deceit or create power dynamics.
Often what comes out of your MC’s mouth is quite different from what they are really thinking.
Your reader has the unique ability to read your MC’s thoughts and see whether they are being
honest or manipulating the situation. We’ll take a closer look at dialogue in Chapter 13.
Take-Aways
Human beings are conflicted, emotional creations that work on all three dimensions. They are the
sum of all their parts, and that’s the essence you want to convey when creating your MC.
They are a complicated mess of optimistic dreams and shameful secrets.
It’s your job to show your readers these dimensions, creating engaging and compelling characters
that are complex, frightening, endearing, and, most of all, empathetic.
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chapter 3 how to create
your story’s world
No matter what genre you write in, you need to build a world for your story. Every writer needs to
build a world so that your readers can have a placeholder to figure out the context in which your
story is set.
If you’re writing a current-day story, you should know where it is set and what’s happening in the
world around your main characters. Imagine the movie Forrest Gump without the political and
cultural wrangling. Without that story’s world, Forrest would have been a seriously flat character.
If you’re writing science fiction or supernatural stories, world-building is extremely important.
The more fantastical your setting, the more time you’ll need to spend developing it. Consider The
Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy—even Star Wars. For those stories to come alive, the main
characters’ experiences had to be set in those rich and textured worlds.
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2. Why is your story’s struggle happening now?
When all hell breaks loose in your story’s world and your character must respond, you need to know
what led up to those events. Is it because of something that happened 20 years ago or something
that’s going to happen 20 hours from now?
2. Watch movies.
Movies are also a great way to get inspiration for your own work. Watch supernatural flicks or
even animated movies like Avatar to see how someone else has constructed a new world.
3. Draw a map.
Use a big sheet of paper and plot out what your world looks like. Don’t aim for a perfect drawing,
just something to show you where everything is located and how your character can get around.
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your reader needs to know. Your world may play a central role in your character’s development
and growth, but it should never become the main character. Let it help you develop your main
character’s eventual denouement, but never take it over.
If you’ve written so much about your world that you haven’t even started on the story yet, it’s time
to stop. You can always flesh it out in more detail as it becomes necessary.
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chapter 4 how to draft your story arc
The story arc (sometimes called the narrative arc) is a more poetic way of saying that each story
must have a beginning, a middle, and an end—or Act One, Act Two, and Act Three. This has been the
guiding template of stories since the ancient Greeks started writing them, and holds true whether
you’re writing fiction or non-fiction.
Where authors fall down on story arc is when nothing much happens to the main character by the
end of the book. They haven’t been tested in some profound way.
climax
rising success
action or failure
inciting falling
incident action
set-up resolution
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Or it can look like a pyramid where each block is a scene that builds up the pyramid until the apex
and then slowly comes down the other side until you’re at the denouement.
If you’re having problems identifying your story arc, graph your story on paper to ensure that the
action rises, falls a little, rises even more, falls a slight bit, and keeps rising until reaching the climax.
You might end up with something that looks like a bell curve, or you might end up with something
that looks like a stock market index. Either way, your action should consistently raise the tension or
the stakes until it reaches the peak.
This is a good road map to help you generate the higher level of story arc, where you want the story
to go, and how things will change.
What’s Next?
Story arc and character arc go hand-in-hand. When you’ve got your story arc in place, it’s time
to work on your character arc. This is the groundwork that you’ll build upon until your plot and
character development seamlessly intertwine.
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chapter 5 how to create a compelling
character arc
You have a story arc, and now you need a character arc. But what exactly is a character arc, and how
do you create one?
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• Skeeter Phelan and her contingent of African-American maids in The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
They begin the story timid and oppressed, and through the course of the story, they transform into
strong women who take a stand and fight for change.
• Elizabeth Gilbert, in her novel/memoir Eat Pray Love begins as a woman suffering from the break
up of her marriage. Through the course of the book she challenges herself to become the woman
she wants to be.
riony Tallis in Atonement by Ian McEwan. Briony is a good girl who thinks she’s protecting her
•B
sister and makes an accusation that haunts her the rest of her life. Her life becomes, in effect,
atonement for that one moment.
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Character Arc & Story Arc
As we’ve seen, you can’t have one without the other. Your story arc informs what happens to your
MC to induce change and transformation, helps them grow into a stronger version of themselves, or
becomes their undoing by the end.
If you don’t know where your story is headed, how can you determine how your main character will
be affected? And at the same time, if you don’t know how your main character is going to change
and grow by the end, how can you decide what events to include in your story that will induce that
change or growth?
The best stories have an intimately intertwined story arc and character arc that feed off each other.
When you’ve drafted both, set your story arc and character arc next to each other. Check that your
story arc affects your main character’s inner world, and that your character arc makes sense for your
story. If it checks out, you’re ready for the next step: the plot thickens.
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chapter 6 drafting your plot
This is the equivalent of the first “long run” in your training. The work laid down by making your MC
three-dimensional, building your story’s world and creating the two arcs will give you the legs to
draft your plot.
What is Plot?
Plot is what happens to your MC. Things happen and your MC has to deal with or resolve these
issues: they receive a mysterious message, they come home to find their spouse in bed with
someone else, their house burns down, etc. One thing happens, then another, then another, and
each event leads your character further along your story arc toward the climax.
Plot is what gives us action. The story arc, working in tandem with the character arc,
gives us the reaction.
Your characters, settings, and scenes are built around your plot, usually organized in a logical
manner. Care must be taken, however, to not let plot dominate your story. You can have the most
action-packed tale, but without character development, it will fall flat.
Where to Start?
You have two choices: 1) you can jump right in and hope for the best; or 2) you can write a
plot outline. Which option you choose is determined by your own natural style and what feels
comfortable to you. We’re going to cover Option 2 and show you how to outline your key plot points.
This example uses a Change Arc, as discussed in the last chapter.
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these hurdles as plot points on your outline. In Gone With the Wind, Scarlett is faced with what seem
like insurmountable hurdles just to keep herself and her beloved Tara intact. These events give your
readers the roller coaster of emotions they love.
Examples of Plotting
It’s difficult to show how to plot without getting into specifics, so here are
three famous stories we’ve plotted to give you an idea of what’s needed at
this stage. Note: Spoilers ahead.
It’s a Wonderful Life
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the hunger games
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Make sure your MC resolves the conflict on her own. Don’t have someone else come in to save the
day, and don’t rely on an act of nature to tidily wrap things up. Your readers want to see your MC
solve her problem herself.
When you outline your plot, remember that it’s just a skeleton. It’s up to you to flesh out that
skeleton and make it a three-dimensional living, breathing opus. Each of our bodies is comprised of
a skeleton that looks very similar to others. It’s when you flesh out our frames with muscles, sinews,
hair, and skin that we take on our individual appearances. Outlining in this manner won’t stifle your
creativity; instead, it helps you maintain a strong plot throughout.
Finally, a powerful resolution is one that leaves your reader feeling some strong emotion at the
end. Tying up all the loose ends also makes for a powerful resolution that won’t leave your reader
dangling and upset.
Take-Aways
Your plot outline will be as individual as you are. It’s merely something to give you a structure on
which to build. It’s the foundation from which your creative juices can spring forth. The outline is not
meant to be rigid, but merely a pliable frame holding up the walls of your world.
There are many other essentials that go into a good plot, like sub-plots and multiple points of view,
that we’ll cover in upcoming chapters.
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chapter 7 how characters transform
One of the easiest ways to help your character transform by the end of your novel is to map it out
using the 9 Enneagram “Levels of Development”. Let’s dive deep into how that works.
These first 3 levels are the more virtuous stages of human development. The stages that come
after are starting to slide to the dark side.
Level 4: Imbalanced. While still on the side of morality, an imbalanced main character has
given into a temptation that’s unhealthy. They’re not quite as self-aware as they should be about
their flaws because they’ve violated their own self-interests.
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Level 5: Manipulative. This level of development has your character manipulating or
controlling their world and others to try to get their basic desires met. They’ve created some
hefty defense mechanisms that come in conflict with others around them.
Level 6: Over-compensating. There’s just something off-kilter about this character. They’re
fairly self-centered and exhibit some extreme behavior in an attempt to get their needs met.
Anxieties and aggressions are acted out in unhealthy ways at this level.
The last three levels are when your MC has turned completely to the dark side. Think villainous.
Level 7: Violation. This level marks a major shift. Your character is suffering from a major life
crisis or perhaps grew up in an abusive home. They must protect themselves at any cost, which
results in serious, unhealthy conflict with others. They’re not quite pathological yet, though.
Level 8: Obsessive/compulsive. Your character is trying to escape reality at this point
rather than surrender to deep anxiety. They’re frankly delusional. Think of the DSM’s description
of personality disorders. That type of character falls into this level of development.
Level 9: Pathological. This is the bottom rung. This character is violent, destructive, and
completely out of touch with reality. The willful destruction they cause is an effort to create
distance from their enormous pain and anxiety.
Literary Examples
Let’s use Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. I place Scout on a Level 3 or 4 in development. She clearly
violates her own self-interests at times, especially in dealing with other kids her age. I see her
gradually work her way up to Level 2 as she learns how to deal with people. At the culmination of
the book, Scout takes a great leap to Level 1, Liberation. She understands her true, essential nature.
She is who she is, and has a great handle on who the people around her are, too. Quite a successful
character change from Scout—and we’re left satisfied with the end.
Jay Gatsby is a main character who sinks a few levels during the course of The Great Gatsby. In the
course of trying to satisfy his ultimate desire of being with Daisy, Gatsby does some shady things and
creates a magical world that he thinks will draw Daisy in. I see Gatsby sliding from Imbalanced to
Manipulative and finally to Over-Compensating by the end of the novel.
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Take-Aways
You can have the most amazing storyline with adventure and action and shocking twists and turns,
but if your reader doesn’t fall for your main character, your novel won’t take off. Create the best
possible character you can and have him or her move up or down the developmental levels.
Readers want to see characters rise above or fall. If you can weave that all together with your narrative
arc, you’ll write an incredibly compelling and engaging story that readers won’t want to put down.
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chapter 8 how to use subplots to bring
your whole story together
Just like in real life, your characters will have more than one thing demanding their time and
attention. Romances, family life, work concerns, health issues, friendships, etc. These additional plot
lines are subplots that give your story depth and help keep it moving.
And as with your main plot, all subplots should follow a narrative arc of conflict, crisis, and resolution,
usually wrapped up before the main plot’s climax.
Subplots can be what’s happening to secondary characters or an internal conflict your main
character is facing in addition to the main conflict of your story. The key to an effective subplot is how
you work it into the main plot.
Types of Subplots
There are a lot of ways to create subplots. We’ll cover three main types here:
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Think about some of your favorite books and
analyze their subplots. A subplot could be
Remove everything that
constructed around a love interest for your MC has no relevance to the
or an internal conflict she must overcome. You story. If you say in the first
can have a subplot that creates empathy for your
MC by showing his vulnerability or a deep-seated
chapter that there is a rifle
desire that he’s not even aware of. There can be hanging on the wall, in the
mystery subplots, coming-of-age subplots, even second or third chapter it
a vendetta subplot. The sky is the limit. absolutely must go off. If
How Many Subplots it’s not going to be fired, it
Should You Have? shouldn’t be hanging there.
Anton Chekhov
There’s no hard and fast rule about the number
of subplots that will work, but as you can
imagine, having too many subplots can create confusion for your reader and headaches for you.
A good rule of thumb is to have your main conflict, an inner conflict, and a handful of subplots.
The easiest way to create your subplots is to follow the same steps you took for the main plot (see
Chapters 4 and 6). The difference is that your subplots will be simpler and have fewer steps to take
for resolution. In fact, you can introduce a subplot and have it resolved in a few chapters, or you can
thread a subplot throughout until the end.
Take-Aways
Don’t let your subplots hijack your main plot. If you find a subplot taking over, think about whether
it should actually have a life of its own. Maybe it’s the premise for your next story.
Just like your main plot, subplots shouldn’t be arbitrarily thrown in without careful thought and
development. And woe unto you who does not wrap up a subplot by the end. If a subplot shows up at
the beginning of your story, make sure it’s resolved—for better or worse—if you want a satisfied reader.
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chapter 9 avoid these plot pitfalls
We’re going to change it up for this chapter and talk about what NOT to do. After all, breaking bad
habits during training is just as essential as forming good ones.
Sometimes it’s hard to see plot problems while you’re writing and it’s only when you go back and
re-read it that you notice the holes. This can send some writers into a downward spiral of frustration
and negative self-talk.
But if you foresee this at the planning stage, you won’t need to go through it during the revision
stage. So take a rest at this point. Look back over what you’ve done so far, particularly your plots and
subplots, and make sure you’re avoiding the following pitfalls.
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Too Much Action is Exhausting
On the flip side, you can actually have too much action. You don’t want your readers to gallop
through your story. When you get into the main writing phase, make sure you give your readers a
moment to catch their breath in between action scenes. Think about your favorite action movie. The
main character isn’t always fighting the bad guys; sometimes she’s quietly contemplating her next
move or examining her feelings.
You need these quiet scenes between the action to help you develop your characters. Readers learn
about the main character(s) by their actions and also by their thoughts. The conversations your
characters have are just as important as what they do to thwart the antagonist. If you don’t feel like
you know and understand your characters and their motivations, you won’t care if they win or lose.
You also need a way to show your character’s flaws—warts and all. You can’t do that with non-stop
action. Take another look at your story arc. Is your plot too shallow? Are you too caught up in the
action and the magnificent symbolism you’ve created? Have you included scenes that will get your
character’s inner turmoil across to your reader?
Let depth of character serve to give your reader a rest between action scenes.
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Irving, and so many more. Most readers didn’t see those endings coming and so they had a strong
emotional reaction when everything was revealed.
Take-Aways
Revisions are hard, especially plot revisions. That doesn’t mean they can’t be done. It will take some
time, however. Don’t give up just yet.
There’s one key idea you should take away from this: every plot problem has a solution.
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chapter 10 choosing your pov -
it’s not as easy as you think
What is POV? It stands for Point of View, and it’s one of the most important aspects of your story that
must be decided before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).
Sometimes the POV just comes to you. You know exactly who would tell the story. Other times, you
have a cast of interesting characters in your head, and it’s a little more difficult to decide.
Here are a few suggestions to help you choose the best POV for your story.
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viewpoint throughout the entire novel. This means your reader sees only what the main character sees
and learns things at the same time the main character does. You can show what your main character
thinks, feels, and sees to close the emotional distance between your reader and the main character.
The drawback with third person limited POV is that you can only follow one character. Showing
other characters’ thoughts and feelings is a no-no. However, if you have a single character who
experiences all of your major plot points, this is the best POV for you to use.
Examples of the third person limited POV are the Harry Potter novels. The reader sees everything
that’s going on, but is limited to Harry’s point of view. We’re surprised when Harry is surprised,
and we find out the resolution at the ending when Harry does. Another fantastic example of third
person limited is Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. We know what’s going on in Gregor’s mind as he is
transformed and are limited to his point of view in everything that happens in the story.
Here are our tips on how to craft a story using multiple POVs:
Decide why you need multiple POVs.
It should really be about the story you want to tell. Make sure the story needs multiple POVs before
you start writing. Two excellent examples of the need for multiple POVs are Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
and My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. In both cases the story depends on conflicting perspectives of
multiple characters who experience the same situations in markedly different ways.
Decide what’s driving your plot.
You have two options with multiple POVs and plot. One, you can write about a single set of events
from different perspectives, or two, you can use several sets of events that specifically move from
place to place and character to character without a lot of overlap. Figure out which option works
best for the story you want to tell.
Decide which POV is best for each chapter or scene.
Not every scene about a main character needs to be in his or her POV. Sometimes it’s more powerful
to show the scene from another POV so your reader experiences the consequences of an action
rather than the action itself. A Game of Thrones is a great novel to study if you want to learn more
about scene decision-making.
Reduce your narrative or story arc to the minimum viable story you can tell.
This will seriously save you countless headaches during revisions. Trying to keep all of the POVs and
story threads in harmony is difficult. Don’t make things more complicated than they need to be. And
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remember, it’s important to tie up all loose ends by the end of your story.
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Multiple POV is Not for the Faint of Heart
A few words of caution are needed. Multiple POV is hard work, and in the hands of an inexperienced
writer can become an unwieldy stumbling block that will get your manuscript rejected by every
agent and publisher alike.
So, when you’re working with multiple POV:
Give each POV character a clearly distinct voice.
Use different speech patterns, different education levels and socio-economic backgrounds.
Distinguish each character by using a different dominant sense for each.
Create distinct character arcs for each POV character.
This includes identifying the goals, stakes, and pitfalls, and how those move the story forward.
Don’t write the same scene from multiple POVs.
You’ll bore your reader. Choose which character has the most at stake and use that POV for the
scene. The only exception is if two characters interpret the same events in a scene in markedly
different ways, leading to a major misunderstanding that’s key to your story.
Make sure to fully identify which POV you’re using.
If you change POVs when you change scenes, you need to somehow ground your reader as soon
as the switch takes place. Some writers will use the character’s name as the chapter title to help
readers know whose head they are in.
Take-Aways
Before you start experimenting with POV, get comfortable with the basics. Read works by authors
who use different POVs with great success to understand how each POV changes the narrative arc
of the novel. Some great novels that use multiple POVs include The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara
Kingsolver, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, and All
the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
POV is a matter of choice, but one that affects every part of your story or novel. Fitzgerald had to
rewrite The Great Gatsby because he initially wrote it in Gatsby’s voice. He decided it would be
much more powerful coming from Nick’s more naïve point of view. Imagine that masterpiece with a
different point of view. Definitely not as powerful.
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chapter 11 creating compelling &
evocative scenes
If you have taken the time to really follow the first 10 steps, your novel will be taking shape. Now to
pull everything together and think about how you’ll create compelling and evocative scenes that
make your readers keep turning the pages.
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How to Create Scenes
How you begin a scene and how you end it is what grabs your reader’s attention. You want to
change up how you begin and end your scenes so they don’t appear formulaic.
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Mind mapping
A high-tech way to capture your scene ideas is to use a mind mapping computer program like
Mindmeister or Mind42 that lets you start with the reason for your scene in the middle. From there,
you brainstorm the crucial elements for a good scene like the emotional mood, how the character
changes, conflicts that arise, and what happens next.
If you’re not a planner and just like to sit at the computer and let the words flow, you can always use
these methods during the editing process to help you analyze each scene to make sure it includes
the essential elements and to ensure it moves your story forward.
Take-Aways
Scenes are usually contained in chapters or can include a visual break of line space between the
ending of one scene and the beginning of the next. Like your story, a scene needs a beginning with
a hook, a middle, and an end.
What’s most important to remember is that each scene has a responsibility to move your plot
forward in a way that evokes strong emotion in your reader and compels him or her to keep turning
the pages. Make your scene as alluring as possible.
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chapter 12 types of conflict
What book are you reading right now? It’s bound to have some type of conflict involving the
characters, otherwise you’d have set it aside long before now.
When you’re telling your own story, you need to choose your conflict wisely so that you can keep your
reader engaged throughout.
There are two main types of conflict: internal and external. And you should weave both throughout
your narrative arc to create a sense of drama.
Types of Conflict
Internal
Your basic internal conflict is Person vs. Self. This is when your main character battles her own inner
demons. Maybe she’s struggling with a moral dilemma like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, or fighting against
her own vices and foils, or striving to become a better person like Hugo’s Jean Valjean. Your main
character must have some inner turmoil that’s causing her emotional pain. Internal conflict adds a
unique tension to your story.
Another kind of internal conflict is Person vs. Fate/God. In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Frodo
struggles to fulfill his destiny to destroy the ring. This internal struggle is sometimes lumped together
with Person vs. Self because it can be argued that Fate or God is really an internal struggle with
yourself to accept or reject your own fate.
External
Person vs. Person is the most common type of external conflict. This is your simple protagonist versus
antagonist where only one person will win. Every superhero movie you see follows this conflict type—
the hero combats the evil villain and wins to save the world. Heroes and their villains can even be
alter egos of each other for an interesting twist (no examples here for spoiler reasons!).
Person vs. Society is an external conflict that sets your protagonist against an institution, tradition,
law, or other type of societal construct. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is an excellent example
where Atticus Finch stands up to racist citizens in town when he defends an innocent black man.
And consider Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a manifesto of capitalism.
Person vs. Nature pits your protagonist against some form or force of nature. Think of Moby Dick,
Melville’s epic battle of Man vs. Whale, or Pi’s struggle to survive while trapped in a boat with a tiger
in Martel’s Life of Pi. This can also include supernatural forces like in Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher.
One final external conflict is Person vs. Technology. As humans, we have an innate skepticism about
technology and where it will eventually lead. Can man create an artificial intelligence that will
someday take over the world and spell doom for all of us? Think of Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey
or Asimov’s I, Robot.
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demolished by a tornado while the house next door is left alone.
The more types of conflict your MC can struggle with, the more she can grow and change. And it’s
this change that gives your reader the satisfying conclusion.
Most importantly: You must tie the conflict directly to your main character.
Conflict must encompass your MC to produce tension.
Consider the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Skeeter is surprised and disturbed by the stories of
the African-American women who are hired help in the finer homes of her hometown. In the end,
she finds out how their stories directly intertwine with hers when she discovers what happened to
her own family’s maid, whom she loved like a second mother.
There’s no need to state your conflicts explicitly; your reader will figure it out. But as the writer, you
need to identify your conflicts, or themes, so that you can apply them as you write. Each scene must
be tied somehow to the basic conflicts you’ve chosen for your work and must move that conflict
forward to resolution.
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Take-Aways
Readers aren’t interested in the main character living a happy, contented life. They want to see someone
triumph (or not) over conflicts. The more unpredictable your story will be depends on how varied your
conflicts are. So drop a bomb. Put a gun in someone’s hand. Add a flesh-eating disease. Go big.
To create the perfect villain—whether it’s man, nature or society—figure out your main character’s values.
Then, take those values and twist them into something hideous and assign the result to a conflict type.
And there’s never been a story rejected for too much conflict—only not enough.
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chapter 13 Using Titillating &
Captivating Dialogue
It’s useful to think about how your characters are going to interact with each other before you
start on that first draft.
Dialogue can be about much more than just the words on the page. Good authors use it to build
tension and subtly set the tone of each interaction. The words their characters choose say so much
more than just their lexical meaning.
Let’s pause to consider how you can use dialogue to strengthen your characters and move your
story forward.
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In life, we all manipulate and deceive at some level (though usually not in such a murderous way!). If
the reader knows that Jim doesn’t want to go to the party for fear of seeing his ex, but he calls and
says that the babysitter cancelled, then the reader is in on the deception. A good writer will be able
to persuade their reader that this deception is good or bad, depending on where they want the story
to go. Should we feel sorry for Jim for being too anxious? Or should we feel angry at him for telling
the lie? Either way, the reader has seen through the facade and learned something about Jim’s
agenda and his vulnerability.
Take-Aways
Writing dialogue is a difficult skill to master. It must be extensive enough to allow your characters to
engage with one another in a way that feels real and allows for relationships to form, but is limited
enough that the reader won’t get bored. In real life, dialogue includes a great deal of tedious fluff:
• “Did you wash the lettuce for the salad?”
• “I can’t seem to find my glasses.”
• “I think I’ve seen this episode of Wheel of Fortune before.”
On the page, dialogue must only be included if it is moving your story forward. If you are setting the
scene as a mundane night at home, then including a dull chat about a TV show might be ideal and
help the reader understand the relationship’s dynamic. Otherwise, cut the humdrum chatter of life.
Only use dialogue when it has a purpose.
With these useful tricks up your sleeve, you can craft realistic conversations that enhance your
plot and deepen the reader’s connection with your characters. Bring dialogue to life and the rest
will follow.
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chapter 14 Weave Backstory
Carefully & Sparingly
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How to Tell if You Have the Right Amount
of Backstory
When writing your novel, you want to focus on getting everything down on paper. It isn’t until the
editing process that you decide what stays and what gets cut. It’s the same with backstory; write
what you know and edit it later.
The key to deciding if your backstory is working is to ask two things:
Be ruthless. Less is more when it comes to backstory. Trust your reader to be able to put two and
two together to arrive at their own conclusion.
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Final Take-Aways
A rich and deep backstory helps you write from a position of knowledge and authority. That said, it
doesn’t mean the reader needs to see it all.
It may take a lot of work on your part to develop a full backstory to fully understand your own
characters, but it will pay off in satisfied readers. Give your readers as much as they need and
no more. It’s in the little, seemingly inconsequential details of backstory that your reader will
find believability.
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chapter 15 Research is Not a Dirty
Word…Really!
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out there and interview people. That’s OK. Start with the local librarian and work your way up from
there. The more people you can talk to, the richer your writing will be.
Another tip is to read everything you can get your hands on. If you are writing a psychological thriller,
a book like Listening to Killers: Lessons Learned From 20 Years as a Psychological Expert Witness in
Murder Cases by James Garbarino is incredibly insightful. Whatever your topic, it’s a good bet that
someone, somewhere has written all about it.
Finally, you can find anything on YouTube. Really. If you need to know how to build an igloo for your
survival story, there is a video to show you how. If you have a scene in which someone needs to have
a boil lanced, there is a video that will show you all the (disgusting) details. YouTube is awash with
how-to videos that will help you paint your scenes as realistically as possible.
One caveat: use all of your senses when researching. Pay attention to how things taste, look, smell,
sound, and feel. This will bring your writing alive with authentic bits that your readers can relate to.
For example, if you set your story in Greece, but you can’t afford to travel there for research, go visit a
Greek restaurant close by and sample the different dishes. Then add in a little of what the restaurant
and food looked like, smelled, tasted, and even sounded like.
Take-Aways
You have a responsibility as a writer to be as accurate as possible with your work. Your make-believe
world needs to ring true. You can’t fake it if you want your readers to stick with your novel.
Think of it this way: Your story didn’t really happen, but it should be situated on a solid framework
of facts.
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chapter 16 How to Tie Everything
Together... aka How to
Write a Killer Ending
What’s the most important piece of writing in your entire novel? Some will argue you need a strong
hook and opening scene(s) to draw your reader in. And some will argue that your ending needs to
be killer if you want a satisfied reader, and especially if you want a reader to advocate for your book
to others.
Let’s just say that both are equally as important: you need to spend as much time and effort crafting
a satisfying ending as you do in grabbing your reader’s attention from the start.
And if you’ve ever read a book with a weak or unsatisfying ending that doesn’t wrap everything up,
you know how important getting the ending right is to your readers.
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• Is your last incident a titanic final struggle? No other incident that comes before your closer should
be more exciting.
• Does your main character confront the worthy adversary? Absolutely mandatory.
• Does your ending include exposition? But be careful: too much explanation causes the final
incident to drag. Ideally, the genius of the ending should be self-evident. Aim for that “ah, now it all
makes sense” moment.
• Does your ending rely on flashbacks? Avoid them at all costs in the final denouement.
• Does your ending leave your reader feeling a sense of wonder? What will readers tell their friends
after they put down your book?
• Does your reader experience transcendence when reading your book? Did she laugh, cry, or feel
some other strong emotional response to your main character’s resolution?
• Have you ever read a book and became so deeply connected to the main character that you
missed them after finishing the book?
That’s the ending you want to write.
Take-Aways
Create a killer ending that far surpasses any other incident in the story. Pull out all the action,
conflict, imagery, and dialogue you can, and blow your readers away. Give them the heights and
the depths of the emotions you want them to feel.
Leave them feeling sorry that they might never meet your main character again.
Then you can write the sequel…
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chapter 17 The Drafts Your Novel Needs
(and Why You Probably Won’t Use
One Word of Your First Draft)
You’ve finished planning and are ready to start writing. But what should you expect?
For this final step, we’re handing over to Katja L Kaine, founder of The Novel Factory software. Her
excellent guide to drafting is one of our most popular guest posts of all time.
0 1 2 3 4
Draft Draft Draft Draft Draft
Nobody writes their final novel on the first pass. I’m not given to making dogmatic statements, but
that’s one I’m willing to bet my manuscript on.
In fact, two of my favorite writing quotes refer to just that:
• “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box
so that later I can build sandcastles.” Shannon Hale
Or, more succinctly:
• “The first draft of anything is shit.” Ernest Hemingway
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How I Approach Drafting
The way I draft is an extension of the way I approach novel planning as a whole – which is to start with
a simple concept and then add more and more detail until I have a fairly comprehensive outline.
With drafting that means starting with a rough outline, slowly fleshing it out, and adding detail,
tweaking and weaving until it is finished, polished prose.
I try to approach each draft with different priorities in mind so I can focus on tackling particular
elements of story-telling at each stage while setting aside other aspects for later so I don’t get
bogged down trying to do too much at once.
In the following sections I give details about the objective I assign to each draft, how I prepare for
that draft (i.e. what I do in advance) and then the technique I use when actually writing it. I’ve added
a rough guide to projected timescales and a bullet point summary of each stage.
Draft Zero
Objective: Foundations
The objective of Draft Zero is to put down a sturdy foundation for your First Draft to stand on. This
draft is a stepping stone between planning and drafting, and isn’t actually prose, hence it being
called Draft Zero, rather than First Draft.
I call this draft ‘blocking’.
Preparation
Before doing the blocking, you should have planned your plot in detail, so you should have a good
idea of premise, story beats, characters, locations and a summary outline of each proposed scene.
Then again, maybe you’re a seat-of-the-pantser and you’re coming at it cold. Just thinking of you
people gives me the sweats. But that’s fine – all are welcome here.
Technique
Blocking really isn’t the first draft, and to keep this clear in my mind I write the blocking in the
present tense almost in the style of stage directions. It’s a straightforward description of what
happens, one thing after another. Sort of like this:
Harry goes to the station where there are lots of people. He finds his way to the right platform and
works out how to run into the pillar. He meets Ron on the train and they immediately get on great
and buy lots of interesting sweets. They meet Hermione, who is obviously a teacher’s pet. Etcetera.
There is no descriptive language unless it’s important to the plot, and I don’t worry about sentence
structure, nice wording or sometimes even (you may need to sit down for this) punctuation
and grammar.
First Draft
Objective - Scaffolding
The objective of the First Draft is to get it out of the way because otherwise you can’t write your
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Second Draft. The First Draft will teach you heaps about your plot (and its holes) and your characters.
Once you’ve finished your first draft, you will be much better informed about where there are plot
problems, where characters aren’t acting consistently or where physical or logical limitations
need addressing.
Preparation
Before I start my first draft, I will have completed my blocking, or Draft Zero. This means I won’t
be staring at the screen wondering what’s going to happen in any given scene, as I already have
the crib notes.
Technique
I approach the First Draft like a steam train. I take a deep breath, lift my hands over the keyboard and
then type furiously until it’s done. No looking back, no rewriting sentences. Clichés, tense changes,
repeated words, purple prose, bad grammar, misspellings – all are totally acceptable.
Why?
Because you will not keep a single word of your First Draft. Not a single word. If you think that sounds
painful then you’d better brace yourself. New writers sometimes labor under the impression that
getting the First Draft done is getting the hard bit out of the way. Wrong.
The First Draft is the first step up the mountain. It would be much better if we could skip the whole
First Draft and go straight to the second, but alas, logic disallows it.
So, don’t waste time worrying over style, quality and word choice, because once you’ve completed
your first draft you will understand your story so much better you will be cutting out entire chapters
and scenes and all that agonizing will be wasted.
Writing your First Draft is an exercise in discovery, and it will give you the framework on which to
hang your novel.
This is a really fun draft as you can be free and loose and not worry about perfection. You can let your
story carry you along, let your imagination run wild. Enjoy it.
Second Draft
Objective – Brickwork
The second draft is where your novel actually starts to take shape and starts resembling something
like a novel. You’re putting in the bricks, if you will. You wouldn’t want to live in a house of bare bricks,
but it is starting to look like a house.
Preparation
It should be fairly obvious that before writing the Second Draft you will have finished your First
Draft, as it would take some quantum physics style bending to do otherwise. In addition, I also do
Character Viewpoint Synopses before starting draft two.
This means I look at the entire novel from the point of view of each of the major characters, thinking
about what they are doing and thinking in (and in-between) each scene. I find that this not only helps my
characters develop into layered human beings, but it also adds interesting twists and turns to the plot.
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Technique
I would say the way I approach the Second Draft is what most people would think of as actually
‘writing the book’. Now is the time to write as if you mean it. That means looking at scene structure,
balance, pace, sentence structure, vocabulary and style. It means editing as you go, trying to find
fresh and interesting ways to describe the details of life and people.
It means trying to really bring the story to life. You should write your Second Draft as if you believe it’s
going to be the Final Draft. Write what you want people to read.
It’s not of course, you’re probably less than halfway there. But shhhh, don’t tell yourself that.
While writing the Second Draft, you will probably come up with oodles more ideas and inspiration. If
these ideas are timely and appropriate to the scene you are writing, then go ahead and put them in.
But if they relate to a sub-plot that threads all the way through, or something for a different scene,
then don’t get distracted and start hopping about right now. Make a note of it for later.
This way you can maintain your forward momentum and not get trapped in a spiral of constantly
trying to make it perfect with the result that you never get to the end. And, similarly if not as
drastically as with the First Draft, a lot will change over this period of writing, so it’s better to wait
until you have all the information – i.e. have finished your Second Draft – before becoming too much
of a perfectionist about sections you’ve passed.
Third Draft
Objective – Plaster
Now we’re really getting somewhere.
To stretch the novel-as-house metaphor to its limits, now you are putting on the plaster, doorframes,
windows, coving, skirting board and roof.
The house is starting to look like something you can live in. It’s still going to need some finishing
touches, but when you’re doing the Third Draft, you can start to see things taking shape.
Preparation
Before starting the Third Draft there is usually a lot of work to do.
Throughout the Second Draft you will probably have been coming up with more ideas and
inspiration, as noted above. Before you start the Third Draft, it’s time to think all these through and
add in notes, sections and prose to your Second Draft. It’s fine if this is in a slightly clunky way, you’ll
address getting everything beautifully smoothed out when you do the next draft.
While in between drafts, you’ll be able to get a better overview perspective on sub-plots and how
they develop, as well as foreshadowing and themes. It’s also a good time to do more in-depth
research, while you’ve got a bit of breathing space and don’t have a word count target hanging
over your head.
Technique
Once more into the breach, my friends. Now you need to get serious about every single word. This
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time it’s fine to go back as many times as you want to perfect something. Hop around if you need to
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while focusing on polishing one sub-plot or a developing a particular theme that runs throughout
the story. However – be wary of falling into the trap of rewriting the beginning over and over again,
and neglecting the later parts of the book. If you notice you’re doing this, then ban yourself from
editing the first third of the book until you’ve given the later chapters a good seeing to. You could
even try working on the scenes or chapters backwards, starting from the end.
Now focus on: sub-plots, layered characters that come to life, nuanced relationships, symbolism,
themes, textured description and foreshadowing every element of your climax.
At the same time, you should continually be improving the prose itself. Every single word. Use
ProWritingAid to check for any clichés, dodgy metaphors or sentences that aren’t working hard
enough. Remove any clunky sentences or overdone description. Weed out repetition, telling where
you could be showing, and lazy or unnecessary adverbs.
Final Draft(s)
Objective – Décor
Now you really are on the home straight. This draft is for putting on the finishing touches, tidying up
any loose ends, and getting the manuscript prepped and primed for submission.
It is where you polish and varnish, add color and bake some fresh cookies to make it smell like home.
Preparation
Now is a great time to get feedback. This could be from a writing group, in person or online, or from
a tame editing buddy (don’t waste time on getting feedback from family and friends unless they are
also writers). You may even wish to pay for a professional editing service.
Ideally you will get all your feedback for the entire novel and have time to sit on it before applying
anything, rather than just going for knee-jerk reactions and tugging your novel in too many different
directions to match the opinions of lots of different people.
If that’s not possible, and you get your feedback in smaller chunks, such as chapters, then you’ll
probably need to add another draft after this one, to read everything in faster succession after you’ve
made your changes.
The type of feedback you get will depend on your particular foibles and flaws, so what you need to
work on will be directly related to that.
Technique
Slow and steady, with a critical eye. Paying attention to detail.
I like to change the font and size of the text, as it tricks my brain into reading it afresh again, rather
than just glazing over and staring at the same sentences for the hundredth time.
Use ProWritingAid to make every sentence so tight it’s ready to pop.
Another useful technique is also to read your work out loud, as it will often become obvious when
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words of sentences are clunky.
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Dig out any tired phrases, consider every single element of punctuation.
Edit, edit, edit. Then, one day – call it done.
Summary
I hope you find it useful to find out a bit more about how I approach the drafting process, and that
this is a helpful framework. Feel free to play around with it so that it works for the type of author
you are and the type of book you’re writing. Just make sure that you’re clear on what you need to
achieve in each draft.
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Conclusion
At the end of this training regimen, you will have a roadmap for your novel. You know where you
want to end up and how you want to get there. Of course, the route may change once you are on
the road and that’s OK. Stay open to new ideas.
Through this preparation, you now know who your main characters are, what they love, what they
fear, what dreams they are working toward. You already understand how they will react in the face of
adversity and who they will become by the end of the book.
You will already know the key elements of your story’s world so that you won’t lose momentum
during your first draft trying to figure them out.
Laying all of this groundwork will help you get through the marathon of writing as easily as
possible. And that’s the most important thing. You will never regret the time you spent writing your
manuscript, you will only regret not doing it.
So get yourself as ready as possible, and then WRITE!
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appendix about proWritingAid
ProWritingAid analyzes your writing and highlights writers write “adverse” when they actually mean “averse”,
potential improvements. Each report focuses on a so when this comes up, the software will offer a short
particular area of your writing. explanation about how the two words are different. This
additional understanding means you can make sure
Some reports will provide quick fixes that will allow you select the correct word not just this time, but every
you to polish up a short piece of writing. Other reports time. You’ll eliminate all the embarrassing errors from
will go in depth and reveal areas where you can do your text and learn not to make them in the future.
more to improve your writing style.
The Overused Words Report
While ProWritingAid is not going to do your job for you,
it will make your job easier. You’ll improve your writing Writers should be wary of many words and phrases in
style as you use the reports because you’ll become the English language that are indicative of poor writing
more aware of the mistakes that you make, just like style. Intensifiers like “very”, for example, actually
having a real-life writing coach guiding you. Not every weaken your writing, or hesitant words like “just” or
suggestion will work for every writer, so you’ll have to “maybe” make your writing feel unconvincing. Words
use your own judgement. like these are fine in moderation, but when overused
can undermine your ideas. In this report, we’ll flag the
The Writing Style Report problematic words and phrases that are commonly
overused by writers, and help you to eliminate them.
The Writing Style Report is one of the most popular
As you work through them, you will be begin to
and comprehensive reports that ProWritingAid offers.
recognize and avoid using them in the first place.
We all know that there is a lot more to good writing
than just correct grammar, and these suggestions
The Clichés and
are based on the same ideas you would learn in a
university writing course.
Redundancies Report
Clichés are the crutch of the lazy writer! Don’t rely
The Style Report highlights several areas of writing that on someone else’s dusty old imagery. Brainstorm
should be revised to improve readability, including: for innovative new ways to express your ideas. Fresh
passive and hidden verbs, over-reliance on adverbs, metaphors will leave a much stronger impression on
repeated sentence starts, emotional tells and much your reader.
more. These suggestions are the same as a professional
copy-editor would give you (in fact many of them use Never use two words when one will do the job.
ProWritingAid). If you are going to send your writing to Redundant wording adds quantity to your writing, but
a copy-editor then, by fixing all these mistakes upfront, not quality. Every word in your writing should be there
your editor will be able to focus on the more important for a reason. This report helps you eliminate the clutter.
aspects of your work, such as tone of voice. You’ll get a
more polished piece of writing as a reward. The Sticky Sentence Report
Sticky sentences wobble around without getting
The Grammar Report to the point. They are hard to follow, and should be
The Grammar Report is like Microsoft Word’s grammar rewritten to increase clarity.
checker but with super powers. We use the latest
Every sentence contains some words that don’t have
artificial-intelligence algorithms to catch all those
any actual meaning; they just hold your sentence
issues that Word’s grammar checker misses. What’s
together: and, in, the, of, etc. These glue words are
more, our team of copy-editors have input thousands
empty spaces in your writing that your writer needs
of specific checks that they have come across in their
to get through to reach your meaning. Statistics show
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years of editing. For example, they noticed that many
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that published texts have a low percentage of glue to”, or “as a result” help you show your readers how
words, and so should your writing. separate points go together to support your larger
idea. They illustrate agreement, contrast or show cause
The Readability Report and effect. One in every four sentences (25%) should
Being a great writer is not about using fancy words – contain a transition. If your transition score is less than
it’s about communicating meaning to your readers. If 25%, you should consider adding more road signs.
they have to look up words or decipher your language
in any way, they will be distracted from your ideas. The Consistency Check
This report uses the top readability tools out there, Consistency is essential in writing. It makes it feel
including the popular Flesch Reading Ease Score, to professional and polished. The Consistency Check
analyze your writing and highlight those sentences highlights inconsistency of spelling, hyphenation,
that will be hard for your reader to understand. capitalization, and punctuation. It also checks to
make sure that you are consistently writing in either
The Repeats Check American English or British English.
Writers often mistakenly use the same word several
times in the span of one paragraph because it’s The Pacing Check
foremost in their mind. But those repeats can set off an Great fiction always contains fast-paced sections, such
echo in the reader’s mind – that subconscious feeling as dialogue and character action, as well as slow-paced
of “Didn’t he just say that?” Too much of the same sections, such as introspection and backstory. Both are
word or phrase can be irritating to read and, worse, essential to create a strong narrative and believable
it can detract from what you are trying to say. This characters, but you never want your readers to feel bored
report highlights repeated words and phrases in your or bogged down by too many long, slow passages. Use
document so you can use a more diverse vocabulary. ProWritingAid to monitor your slow-paced sections to
make sure your readers never lose interest.
The Sentence Length Report
Writing that uses varying sentence lengths keeps the The Dialogue Tags Check
reader’s brain engaged. Some should be short and Most dialogue tags, aside from “said” and “asked” break
punchy, others should be long and flowing. Sentence that cardinal rule of writing: show don’t tell. If you write
variety adds an element of music to your writing. “Jane exclaimed” after her dialogue, you are depending
ProWritingAid creates a visual representation of your on a word to get Jane’s emotion across. Instead, show
sentence lengths so you can pick out areas where you it to your reader with her actions. Describe how Jane’s
should add more variety. Too many long sentences eyes bulge with shock. Make everyone in the room turn
may result in a monotonous text, or too many short to look at her outburst. Use ProWritingAid to highlight
sentences may result in a choppy text. You can see at all your dialogue tags and get your emotion across in a
a glance where adding more short, medium or long stronger way.
sentences will round out the piece.
The Contextual Thesaurus
The Pronoun Report The contextual thesaurus allows you to explore a range
Inexperienced writers often rely on pronouns to keep of synonyms by double-clicking any word. Unlike most
the narrative moving: “He did this”, “She did that”, “They thesaurus suggestions, our report offers replacement
ran there”, “I found out.” It’s dull. On average, published words that fit within that context of that sentence.
writing contains only 4-15% pronouns. If your writing
contains a higher percentage than that, then you need The Diction Report
to replace your pronoun-heavy passages with more When it comes to writing, less is more. Too often,
dynamic wording. writers try to sound authoritative by saying simple
things in wordy ways. Why write “has the ability to”
The Transition Report when you can write “can”? You’re just using more
Transition words are the road signs in writing – they words to say the same thing, which makes your writing
help your reader move smoothly between ideas. less clear. We’ll find these unnecessarily verbose
Transitions like “similarly”, “nevertheless”, “in order phrases so you can make every word count.
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The Alliteration Report Over 20 Tools in One
Alliteration creates a pleasant rhythm when reading We’ve just taken a look at some of our best writing and
and so is often used in fiction, poetry and even editing tools. ProWritingAid is continually evolving to
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highlight all instances of alliteration in your text. piece of software. Try our free version now and see
what ProWritingAid can do for you.
The Homonym Check
Homonyms are words that sound the same and are
spelled alike but have different meanings – and they
slip past spellcheckers all the time! Our check will also
catch homographs (words that are spelled the same
but sound different and have different meanings) and
homophones (words that sound the same but have
different spellings and different meanings). If you
write He lost his patients but really meant He lost his
patience, your spellchecker won’t flag it as an error.
The ProWritingAid tool will highlight every word in
your document with a homonym, homograph and
homophone so you can double-check that you have
it correct.
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