Category: Narrative Craft

Sometimes, the words don’t feel like they’re coming from you. You sit down to write, expecting the usual struggle, but instead, something else takes over. The sentences spill out faster than you can think. The dialogue sounds like it’s being dictated to you. The story unfolds in ways you never planned, yet it feels inevitable—like…

Some ideas don’t survive. You think of them in the shower, scribble them on a napkin, type them into a half-finished document—and then, somehow, they slip through your fingers. You tell yourself you’ll get back to them. You never do. This is how ideas die. Not with rejection or failure, but through neglect, hesitation, or…

Some stories could go in any direction. You’re writing, following your outline (or your instincts), and then you hit a decision point. A character is standing at a crossroads—do they go left or right? Do they betray their closest ally or stay loyal? Does the plot spiral into catastrophe, or do they find a way…

Some chapters refuse to be written. You sit down, knowing what needs to happen, but the words don’t come. Or worse, they do—but they feel wrong. Stiff. Uninspired. You write a few paragraphs, delete them, try again, delete those too. You tell yourself you just need more time to figure it out. You’ll come back…

Writers procrastinate for all the usual reasons—laziness, distraction, the quiet lure of social media—but there’s a deeper, stranger form of it that feels even more insidious: the kind that masquerades as productivity. This isn’t the obvious kind of avoidance, the kind where you scroll through your phone instead of opening your draft. It’s the kind…

Some writers never stop brainstorming. They generate idea after idea, build intricate worlds, craft detailed character backstories—but never actually write the book. The notes pile up. The outlines become sprawling. The “planning” phase stretches from weeks to months to years. At first, it feels productive. But at some point, the writer realizes they’re stuck in…

Every time you rewrite a book, you create a new version of it. Maybe the protagonist makes a different choice. Maybe the plot unfolds in a different order. Maybe the entire tone of the book shifts, depending on when you’re writing it, what you’re feeling, or who you are at that point in your life….

Some books never get written. Not because the writer wasn’t talented enough. Not because the idea wasn’t good. But because something—hesitation, time, self-doubt, fear—kept the words from ever making it to the page. And yet, those books don’t disappear. They linger. Half-formed outlines in forgotten notebooks. Scraps of dialogue buried in old files. Concepts that…

Some books refuse to be written—until the right moment. You try. You outline, draft, push through, but something doesn’t click. The sentences feel forced. The characters won’t come alive. The story won’t take shape the way you imagined it. So you set it aside. Then, months—or years—later, you come back to it. And suddenly, it…

Some stories don’t feel finished—even when they technically are. The climax happens, the big confrontation plays out, the resolution ties everything up… and yet, something feels off. It’s not that the book ended on a cliffhanger or left major questions unanswered. It’s something subtler, harder to define. The story is over, but the reader feels…