Hey 👋 - Dave here.

Happy Saturday morning.

Here’s this week’s piece to help you reach your potential and craft stories that connects.

Read time: 3 minutes

Keep creating!

Want to write stories that keeps people on the edge of their seats?

The kind of narratives that earn you five-star reviews, critical acclaim, and massive stardom?

Well, I’ve got news for you…

Because if you haven’t yet figured it out...

Creative writing can be a real pain in the azz.

So you need every trick you can muster to craft a story that turns audiences into fans. 

Get ahead of the pack by applying these bite-sized tips when developing your work-in-progress:

1. Adore your story

Either love your plot and characters all the way — or leave them. Because the story that always fills your heart is the one that will actually get finished.

2. Create curiosity

String audiences along like a cold-hearted girl leading on a clueless dude. If people aren’t wondering what happens next, you’ve said too much.

Give people just enough to always want the next scene.

3. Build deep & dark backstories

Develop a hero full of dark truths, mistakes, and flaws. Give your villain a moral compass and empathetic history.

Perfectly good or evil characters are unrealistic. So you must create remarkable roles to avoid tropes and compel audiences to believe in your make-believe.

4. (KISS) Keep It Simple Storyteller

Break up huge blocks of text in fiction or simplify dialogue in scenes to speed up pacing. Treat your audience like kids even if you’re writing for adults.

Assess comprehension using an app like Hemingway and shoot for grade 7-8 or lower.

5. Start a timer

Not for your writing sessions, but for when to reach small and large goals.

Create your core characters in 30 days. Outline your story in 60 days. Write your first draft in 4 months.

If you don’t plot a course to finish, the wheel of time will never stop turning.

6. Respect story structure

Embrace the timeless storytelling principles helping writers connect with audiences every day.

You can still use it to write by the seat of your pants. But people intuitively know how stories should flow so they want you to honor their expectations.

7. Write in active voice

Passive voice sends readers back in time. People want to feel like stuff is happening right now.

Help your audience be in the moment, not the past.

8. Write, don’t research

During writing sessions, use a rare or made-up keyword to mark locations you need to later research, then continue writing.

Later, when it’s actually time to research, just hit CTL/CMD F and type your keyword. I use “Roker.”

9. Enter the feedback loop

Receiving feedback is a fast-track to improving your story development.

Better yet, giving feedback to others will help you realize what’s working or not working in all stories including your own. Then ride the feedback loop over and over to accelerate your learning curve.

10. Kill your darlings

If a beloved character no longer fits into your story, delete them or recast them. If a death serves the plot, execute characters without mercy.

Be a ruthless writer (and editor) willing to do anything that repairs or resolves your story arcs.

11. Copy other authors

Love an author’s work? Practice copying a chapter or two to study their approach to writing or scene building.

I once did this with Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat.

Obviously never republish any of their stuff, but practice always improves potential. Plus you might get inspired in the process.

That’s it for this Saturday.

See you next week!

— Dave