Quick Answer Starting over is not about having nothing — it’s about having the experience to know what actually matters this time. (Updated May 2026.) Nearly 2 decades ago, only a few streets over from where I live now in Tainan, Taiwan, I had a panic attack about my future. What will I do when
I don’t think it’s unusual for anybody to feel like the last two years haven’t been great. I generally agree with the sentiment, if all you’re doing is surviving, that’s enough. I also don’t think we always need to productivize our creativity. There’s a perversion in the modern compulsion to Always Be...
I feel like I’ve discussed this ad nauseum, but it was probably tucked into some broader concepts and it’s a HUGE issue. So I wanted to share a very relevant, crucial bit of advice that might make everything easier. What’s backstory? Backstory is usually the deeper, poignant scenes that reveal character motivations. A lot of...
Quick Answer The 25 most common signs of amateur writing — from head-hopping and info-dumps to purple prose and weak openings. FIRST CHAPTER MISTAKES What follows are some insights I’ve collected, after providing feedback on hundreds of first drafts. I’ve tried to only share general examples that I notice frequently in the majority of...
Someone asked me this question recently on YouTube: Where do authors go to learn more about story craft? How do we know when we’ve found a reputable teacher? Is it a college degree in English and literature? What is the best way to learn how to piece together a readable story? I’ve gotten similar questions
I’ve been hearing more chatter about Plottr, the book-timeline software that helps you map out your novel’s key scenes. A while back someone created a pretty cool template based on my chapter plotting outline, and I’ve been talking with Plottr’s founder to add my template within their tool so everyone can access it. That...
Derek MurphyDerek Murphy has a PhD in Literature, is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and has spent over a decade helping authors write, publish, and sell books through Creativindie. When he’s not critiquing manuscripts or building writing tools, he’s probably in a castle somewhere with cats...
Quick Answer A novel is typically 250–350 pages (75K–100K words). Chapters average 3,000 words each; under 50K is a novella. I see this question a lot so here’s a quick answer: Novels are typically 250 to 350 pages; with about 250 to 300 words per page. This will depend on genre and word count. Average
Testing out my new theme with this poem I wrote for the preface of Book Craft. Help me test the comments by writing your own poem below! My best words come at night. When soft music is humming and birds or bats are chirping and dusk or dawn is peeking above the horizon. When the
It’s nearly the end of a long year. If you weren’t as productive as you wanted to be, don’t worry about it! But now might be a good time to start using the clean slate of a new year to set goals and level up your author career. UPDATES: check this for 2025 black friday
A novel’s setting isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a living, breathing entity that influences character dynamics, advances the plot, and evokes emotional responses from the reader. Just think about the fog-laden streets of Victorian London in a Sherlock Holmes mystery or the lush, fantastical realm of Middle Earth in J.R.R...
Quick Answer Win NaNoWriMo by outlining your plot in October, writing 1,667 words daily, and refusing to edit until December. Nanowrimo is just around the corner: here’s a brief getting started video with links to my best writing and publishing resources. Start with this: It’s a “Defense of #amwriting” and explanation of...
