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I find that writers are often adept at mapping the big structural plot points of their story and understand the sense of progression and momentum of those, but then have a harder time figuring out how to maintain story momentum in-between those big, often climactic, plot points. So to the rescue: the story momentum measure. I’ve developed this tool to be used as both, a planning tool or a diagnostic tool to figure out where or why your story might be dragging. It’s not a silv

I’ve adapted one of the key pedagogic tools I used to teach college writing to fiction writing and it’s the one tool I use when trying to gain as much objectivity as possible when self-editing.1 Let’s face it, even immensely accomplished writers have to face that gap between what you want to be on the page and what actually is on the page. This is where the distinction of content versus function can really help you identify the areas of your writing that are boring readers, a

“Fiction allows us to extend and refine our capacity to process social information, especially the key information of character and event–individuals and associates, allies and enemies, goals, obstacles, actions, and outcomes–and to metarepresent, to see social information from the perspective of other individuals or other times, places, or conditions …” from chapter 13 of “On the Origin of Stories” by Brian Boyd You’ve probably heard it said that stories are fundamental to