Backstory is there only because something had to come before Chapter One.

A strong dilemma section will drive home to readers that your characters are realistic, thinking human beings. Just as importantly, it will provide a solid bridge between the previous scene’s disaster and the following scene’s goal.

A TELEPHONE YOWLED in Chris’s ear, and he scrabbled at his side for a sword that wasn’t there.

It’s not enough to create a character who does interesting things. He must also do them for interesting reasons.

Conflict” and “tension” are often used interchangeably, not so much because they’re the same thing – because they’re not – but because they’re kissing cousins that fulfill similar functions within the story.

A story isn’t ready to be written until you’ve been able to add at least two or three layers of juxtaposition.

But the world keeps on spinning and people keep on living – through worse things than this.

People only believe in heroes when they win.

Few of us would want to subsist on a steady diet of tragedy, but all of us are better for having cleansed our reading palate with the astringent bite of these unflinching portrayals of bittersweet truth.

What he should do was punch himself in his own face.