Resources for Writers

If you’re here looking for writing craft help, I have a few downloadable items I hope might be helpful for you!

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First, I use Jami Gold’s Story Engineering Beat Sheet with all of my books. I’m a massive fan of Larry Brooks’ book, Story Engineering. I’ve altered Jami’s beat sheet just the slightest, adding in a column for character arc and a row for theme, both of which I prefer to draft and discover first before figuring out plot points. You can find that sheet here.

Second, I have a Plotting Overview doc. It contains a quick run-down of several storytelling elements (theme, character arc, plotting, etc) with fill-in-the-blank sections. Here is a document giving an example of how you might use it, using the book Howl’s Moving Castle.

Third, I have seven writing exercises that can be found here. They’re designed to progress from one to the next and help give writers power and choice over the words they use when they write.