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How to Write a Book Without Going Crazy
PREPARING TO WRITE
Start Here: Important stuff to know about these classes. (1:55)
Defining Your Niche: Beware of choosing the wrong tribe! (11:47)
Write What You Know: Is this the worst advice ever? (5:15)
How to Get Ideas: Five ways to jumpstart your muse. (7:28)
The One-liner: Exposing the naked soul of your story. (1:39)
Defining Your Theme: A guide for those who would rather chew glass. (4:34)
Choosing Your Title: Scarier than naming your baby! (8:50)
Past or Present Tense? First or Third Person? The wrong choice will kill your book. (13:51)
Basic Worldbuilding: And how it can ruin your storytelling. (5:53)
Advanced Worldbuilding: For writers who like to play God. (24:16)
Outlining: Do this wrong and it will suck the life from you. (4:40)
The Right Way to Research: Hint, not the Wikipedia! (26:31)
Building Kickass Characters: Use this five-point character checklist. (8:08)
Creating Disabled, BIPOC, and LGBTQ Characters: Know when this is a bad idea. (3:57)
How to Name Your Characters: And why “Bill” is not a cat’s name. (21:57)
The Hero Workshop: Building a character that readers want to sleep with. (12:05)
The Villain Workshop: The making of a monster. (9:33)
Creating Characters of the Opposite Sex: The five biggest mistakes writers make. (9:08)
Creating Child Characters: A trip down the rabbit hole. (12:43)
The Dramatic Triangle: No, it’s not the place where planes and ships disappear. (2:20)
Making a D.R.A.M. Pie: Because who doesn’t like pie? (10:15)
Conflict, Jeopardy, and Stakes: The beating heart of your story. Don’t let it flatline! (3:12)
Twists and Surprises: How to make your readers fear you. (10:41)
Three Ways to Piss Off Readers: Mistakes that bring out the torches and pitchforks. (5:07)
Plot-Driven vs. Character-Driven Books: And why they both suck. (3:24)
Plotting Like a Pro: Ten mistakes to avoid. (8:31)
Subplots: The writer’s best friend. (4:10)
Building Awesome Decision Points: “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” (6:09)
Escalation: The cardinal rule of all genres. (1:28)
Gingerbread Story Structure: Lessons from Hansel and Gretel. (15:17)
Designing a Series: When you want readers for life. (9:17)
Writing Apps: Forcing robot slaves to write your book for you. (2:04)
Google Docs: Live rent-free in the cloud. (13:16)
Scrivener: Check out the groovy colored folders! (19:27)
ProWritingAid: Your own snooty English teacher. (18:07)
Microsoft Word: An old workhorse that escaped the glue factory. (14:35)
Voice Dictation: For those of us with fumbly fingers. (14:29)
Plottr: Your entire series on a badass chart. (8:29)
Achieving Blastoff: Why most books blow up on the launch pad. (2:40)
THE WRITING PROCESS
How to Have Fun Writing: Ten ways to get high on your own supply. (6:22)
Ten Tips for Cranking Out the Pages: Say goodbye to writer’s block. (7:41)
How to Write Right: Because no one can decipher your drunken ravings. (7:48)
Evergreen Storytelling: How to make your book immortal. (3:52)
Writing in Global English: It's the idioms that kill you. (5:49)
Developing Your Author’s Voice: Why this is a bad idea. (2:48)
Writing Exposition and Backstory: Five tricks for keeping your reader engaged. (4:41)
How to Build a Sequence: Be the hit of the party by arriving late and leaving early. (7:08)
How to Give Your Readers the Feelz: “I’m not crying, you’re crying.” (8:06)
How to Write Action Scenes: Lock and load! (8:43)
BONUS VIDEO > Sexing Up Your Book: Getting past first base with your readers. (13:31)
How to Kill Main Characters: But never hurt Snuffles, the family pug. (5:07)
Four-Letter Words: You may be using them wrong. (6:49)
Chapter Construction: Head hopping and other perils. (8:12)
The Whammo Rule: Caffeine for tired readers. (1:41)
Devious Dialogue: How authentic voices can ruin your book. (12:43)
Creating Contrast: A technique to fascinate your readers. (2:04)
The Devil is in the Details: How to feed that devil. (2:50)
The B.E.R.E.T. Chain: Stop creating soulless plot monkeys. (8:16)
Pacing: Interval training for your book. (6:03)
Tone: Beware of feathered fish. (4:42)
The Four Types of Cliffhangers: How to keep asses in the reading chair. (10:22)
Alpha and Beta Readers: Recruiting your wolf pack. (22:19)
Two Critical Checklists: Because “winging it” is for the pigeons. (3:47)
AFTER YOUR FIRST DRAFT
The Revision Process: Why you must kill your darlings. (6:53)
Editing and Proofreading: Can you do this yourself? (7:28)
Sensitivity Readers: Do you really need them? (4:47)
Where to Go From Here: Your mission to conquer the world. (3:18)
The Revision Process: Why you must kill your darlings.
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