Most of your goals are most likely about writing or finishing a book. Which is an amazing goal. And a big goal. But it can be daunting, especially once the newness of the goal or the book idea wears off.

So the biggest thing you want to keep in mind is why you want to do it. What is driving you to write a book? Why that story?

If you are a fan of this channel, you’ll know we talk a lot about identifying your story genre, being familiar with it so you can either follow or bend genre expectations. Making sure you are giving the reader what they want and able to market your story correctly to get your book to those demanding eyes and ears.

But within this, there is a new term on the rise — Microgenres. 

Previously a popular term mostly in the music and movie community, the book world is now adapting it for their purposes as well. So what is a microgenre?

Let’s discuss!

We’re quickly coming up on the new year—a fresh start and a time when everyone is excited to plan new goals, new habits, and make next year the best year yet.

But to start 2022 off right, you first want to take a look back at 2021.

So this is going to be a two part post: this week, we’ll talk about how to evaluate your previous year, what to look at, what to consider, and then next week will be all about taking that information and making realistic, achievable goals.

So let’s take a look at your 2021! And as an added bonus, if you are curious, at the end of the video, I’ll go over some of what I found out in the review of my 2021. Including how many books I read, which is always a big question I get asked.

So let’s dive in!

Last week, we talked about questions you should ask yourself to review your 2021, giving yourself a good idea of where you are at now. The good, the bad, and the in between.

So now we get to move on to the fun part – creating goals for 2022!

Dialogue is an ongoing conversation (Ba-dum-dum) between authors and editors because it is one of the trickiest aspects of writing.

These are my top 10 rules for writing great dialogue – the code I live by when I do my editing, when talking with my authors, and even on the odd occasion I find myself needing to write dialogue.

In honor of the recent New Year, let’s talk writing goals. Specifically, creating realistic and achievable writing goals.

How much should you aim to write in one day? How often should you write? What happens when you fall behind? Below I’ve outlined the steps on not only how to create achievable 2021 writing goals, but how to build healthy writing habits for years to come!

When novels are set in a world so like our own, pop culture references can be a key tool – a way to ground the reader, show feelings, situations, or details. But knowing when to add these gems and when to abstain is the trick. To help, I’ve created a quick checklist to assist in deciding whether your pop culture reference should be in your story.