When it comes to understanding the big picture of a story, a high-level outline can be a tremendous help. Think of it like a map–the points or beats will give you an idea of where you're going and how to get there. It might not go into

One of the most important aspects of writing fiction is constructing compelling characters. A great character can bring a story to life, draw readers in by eliciting an emotive reaction, and transport us to other worlds. I write paranormal cozy mysteries. For those unfamiliar, cozy mysteries are a popular book

Do you know what developmental editing is? What about copy editing, line editing, or proofreading? These are all distinct types of editing that address different facets of your story. For instance, a developmental edit examines plot, character development, pacing, etc. to make sure the tale is coherent and balanced while

Some writers are description heavy because they want to paint a vivid picture for the reader. They use descriptive language to create an atmosphere and bring the story to life. It can also emphasize certain details or emotions that are important to the plot. Description helps readers visualize and connect

As a writer, I've discovered that the thesaurus is one of the most useful tools in my arsenal. This seemingly simple book contains a wealth of words that can help to breathe new life into any piece of writing. A Thesaurus can be of great help when you&

Federico Escobar, an active Sudowrite user, deserves credit for discovering this technique. When Federico was experimenting with the Expand button, he discovered that if he added instructions in parentheses at the end of the text about style, plot, and tone, then highlighted those parenthetical notes and the main text when

Eye dialect is a literary device used to represent dialect by mimicking certain aspects of its pronunciation. It is not an accurate representation of the spoken language and often involves using nonstandard spelling to represent the sounds of everyday speech. Eye dialect can be seen in many works of literature—

The Rewrite button has a predefined option for adding description ("More Descriptive"), and the Describe button covers description using the five senses and metaphors—but what if you're looking to add a specific type of description not covered by these options? Using the Rewrite button'

I find myself in a tense quandary fairly frequently. Not tense as in tension, but tense as in past, present, future. Only the Write button in Sudowrite (at least at the time of this writing) takes its cues from the text provided on how to format narrative tense. Since Sudowrite

Character description is important for helping readers to visualize the characters in a story and to understand the motivations of your characters. It can also sometimes create suspense or foreshadow events. So, what is character description? Character description involves the use of sensory details to create the reader’s visual

Before we get into continuing scenes and chapters, I have a secret to tell you. 1500 is the magic number. I know. Schoolhouse Rock told you it was 3. Well, it told me that 3 was a magic number—now that I think about it, you may be too young

When I first started using Sudowrite, one thing I begged the developers for was a way to create murder mystery plots. In my genre, the murder mystery follows typical mystery conventions (a murdered person, a murderer, multiple suspects, clues and red herrings) to allow the reader to play along. We

Some newer writers have trouble getting started. Hell, some old writers have trouble getting started. In this first example, I’m going to show you how to use Beat Sheets to have Sudowrite give you a push. So, what is a beat sheet? A beat sheet is a tool used