Top takeaways from the Author Nation conference, including using curiosity gaps to hook readers, leveraging new tools and services for authors, and thriving in self-publishing. Learn about marketing strategies, metadata tools, and standing out in the age of AI—plus advice from experienced authors.

Not every scene can end with a cliff-hanger. What other techniques can you use to get maximum impact from your last few lines?

Learn how to use sensory details to bring important introspective moments alive for your readers and help them identify with your point-of-view character.

How to make sure your secondary characters are pulling their weight in your story.

Practical tips from authors about how to create names for your fictional characters.

Plot reversals can add drama and energy to a plot that is dragging.

How characters work in the machinery of the novel.

How and why your characters and plot should work together to create a book that readers can’t put down.

How visualizing your readers can help you embrace your creative power and overcome writer’s block.

Why crafting believable, engaging characters is central to writing a successful novel.

What is genre and how can understanding it help you tell the story you want to tell?

Writing a book is a big undertaking. Brilliant ideas can take seconds to formulate and months of labor to bring to fruition. But once you find your path, the work of hauling yourself over the mountain of the first draft simply requires putting one foot in front of the other.

I frequently counsel writers who are stuck in the early stages of book planning because they are paralyzed by anxiety that their plot or premise has already been written before – and better – by another author. I’m here to tell you what I tell them: stop worrying because the devil is in the details.