How to Write a Plot Twist Readers Never See Coming
October 2, 2026
A good plot twist is a surprise the reader could have seen coming and didn't. How to plant small hints, misdirect, avoid the twists that fail, and test yours with beta readers.
Tag: Fiction Writing
Fiction lives or dies on craft. These articles cover the work of writing a story people cannot put down: character, plot, pacing, and dialogue. The skills that turn a good idea into a book a reader finishes at two in the morning.
Character DevelopmentCan You Put Someone Who Wronged You in Your Novel?
October 1, 2026
Writers have always turned people who hurt them into villains. Why a fiction disclaimer won't protect you, what makes a character too recognizable, and how to borrow a real villain safely.
Fiction WritingWriting Vampires: How to Build Your Own Vampire Rules
October 1, 2026
Can a vampire show up on thermal imaging, use a smartphone or trigger an automatic sink? How to build vampire rules from an origin, with lessons from Dracula 2000 and Blade.
Book DesignWhat Software Do Novelists Use to Write a Book?
October 1, 2026
Most novelists write in Word, and I do too. The free alternatives, when Scrivener or NovelCrafter is worth it, whether to handwrite the first draft, and which tools format a novel for print.
DialogueShould You Only Use “Said” in Dialogue Tags? My Rules for Tags and Adverbs
October 1, 2026
Readers skim right past dialogue tags, so use the plain ones and don't bury anything important in them. My simple rules for said, tag variety, adverbs and action beats.
Book MarketingWhy a Good Book Isn’t Enough: Agents, Quiet Novels and What Sells
October 1, 2026
Agents reject well-written novels every day, and quiet literary fiction is the hardest sell of all. Why a good book isn't enough, and what sells books.
DefamationGhostwriting a Novel Based on Your Own Life
September 29, 2026
A ghostwriter can turn your life story into a novel, starting with the same interviews as a memoir and then changing names, places and timelines to build a plot. How to choose between memoir and novel, and what fiction does…
Fiction WritingBehind the Book: The Mysterious Island, Neb’s Side
September 15, 2026
Verne gave Neb one job and no interior life. He is on almost every page of the original and never once in a sentence that matters. This version is the correspondent’s private record, and it exists to correct that.
Fiction WritingThe Greatest Documentaries
September 11, 2026
Every documentary reviewed on this site, ranked by the rating its review carries. Natural history, true crime, sport, surveillance, and the two films that got convictions overturned and a genocide described on camera.
AnimationAnimated Films, Ranked
September 11, 2026
The studio animation canon ranked end to end, from the 1941 Disney features to the DreamWorks era. A complete ranking rather than a greatest list, because the bottom of it matters as much as the top.
Fiction WritingThe Greatest Vampire Films
September 11, 2026
Every vampire film reviewed on this site, ranked. Dreyer's dream logic, Herzog remaking Murnau, Bava's gothic, Hammer's decline into sex, and the one film that asks whether there is any such thing as a vampire at all.
Black and WhiteThe Greatest Samurai Films
September 11, 2026
Every samurai film reviewed on this site, ranked. Kurosawa, Kobayashi, Gosha and Okamoto, and a genre whose masterpieces are nearly all arguments against the thing they depict.