Ever written a story that just wasn’t working? No matter what you tried, you couldn’t seem to get it right, and like a virus, this inability sent firestorms into your world, leaving you helpless. Every writer I’ve met knows this feeling, as do I — in fact, I lived it…

Conquer bad dialogue with these tips from a master — I used to think that writing good dialogue was a gift I possessed until one short script kicked me in the teeth. I felt like a fraud for the first time. The character wasn’t sounding right, and without that, it felt flatter than plywood. What did I not try? I…

And how to avoid them — Although nature thrives on mistakes, your stories could die if you make some of the mistakes outlined below. Some of these I learned the hard way, and others I gleaned from my observation of and interaction with many writers over the years. I have structured each mistake thus; The mistake …

2. No clear inner obstacle — This post was written in collaboration with Ejiga Emmanuel. I’m a storyteller who teaches other people how to tell better stories via my weekly newsletter [Subscribe here]. A great story can't happen without great characters. That’s easy to say. The hard part is designing these characters, especially your protagonist (the…

1. Classic bad guy villain — This post was written in collaboration with Ejiga Emmanuel I’m a storyteller who teaches other people how to tell better stories via my weekly newsletter [Subscribe here]. Conflict is an integral part of your story. If you mess up the conflict, you mess up your story. Since conflict is essential…

Give them a good side — This post was written in collaboration with Ejiga Emmanuel I’m a storyteller who teaches other people how to tell better stories via my weekly newsletter [Subscribe here]. Do you know why people love stories? They help us explore the meaning of our experience on earth. Stories won’t be able to…

Write high-quality stories even as a newbie — Writing is incredibly fun, yet very complex. For newbie writers, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of new information you have to chunk down before you can start writing quality stories. …

Overcome the danger of plot armor — Written in collaboration with Ejiga Emmanuel Nothing will damage your story more than weak tension. No amount of interesting characters or witty dialogue can save a story from weak tension. On the surface, it looks like it would be easy to create strong tension. But it’s not. Because when it…

Attributes of a killer opening scene — Written in collaboration with Ejiga Emmanuel As writers, our main job is to entertain the audience. Yeah, we have a great message to tell and a nice cocktail of emotions to share. But all of that is useless if we cannot make the audience care. The audience takes a big…