Resources, insights, and inspiration for writers at every stage of their journey.
From the instructors who have helped over 100,000 aspiring authors learn their craft.

Recent Articles

  • Gouache illustration of flowers in a crystal vase on a windowsill, their shadows forming an unexpected silhouette on the wall behind
    Your Reader Solved Your Twist in Chapter Four
    Foreshadowing fails when the reader sees it coming. A character mentions a gun in chapter two. By chapter eight, someone’s been shot. The reader wrote that ending for you somewhere around chapter four. Real foreshadowing…
  • Painterly illustration of a shadowy corridor with many doors slightly ajar, warm golden light spilling through the cracks onto dark floorboards
    The Tiny Questions That Keep Readers Turning Pages
    Tension lives at the sentence level. Most writers think tension means car chases and ticking bombs. They write their high-stakes scenes carefully and rush through the quiet ones. Then a beta reader says “I got…
  • Gouache illustration of a woman walking across a crumbling stone path in space, fragments floating upward behind her, an illuminated doorway ahead
    Your Inciting Incident Is Probably in the Wrong Place
    Most writers put their inciting incident in the wrong place because they’ve misidentified what it actually is. They point to the murder, the diagnosis, the letter on page three. Something happens to the protagonist, and…
  • Surreal painterly illustration of a woman in a trench coat striding confidently across an empty gap of sky between two floating cutaway rooms, a lamplit kitchen on one side and a sunlit room of moving boxes on the other.
    The White Space Is the Bridge: How to Cut the Dead Weight Between Scenes
    Most writers are terrified of the gap between scenes. So they build little bridges. “She drove home, made dinner, watched some TV, and went to bed. The next morning…” Three sentences of nothing to get…
  • Watercolor illustration of a lone author in an empty marble hall gazing at a wall of glowing rooms, each filled with crowds of eager readers just out of reach
    Your Book Is on the Wrong Shelf: How Categories and Keywords Decide Who Finds You
    Most self-published books die in a category they never should have entered. Writers pick “Fiction > Literary” because it sounds prestigious, then wonder why nobody finds the book. The category isn’t a label. It’s the…
  • Watercolor illustration of a woman in an apron casually opening her refrigerator to find a swirling galaxy and planets inside, treating cosmic wonder as ordinary.
    Why Your Sci-Fi World Feels Like a Museum Exhibit
    Most science fiction worlds fail because the writer explains them. You can tell within a page. Two scientists explain quantum drives to each other though they both already know. The seams show. The world feels…
  • Watercolor illustration of a woman on a cobblestone street at night, a dropped wallet on the pavement behind her, her shadow reaching down to pick it up before she has decided
    What Your Characters Do When Nobody’s Watching
    Most first drafts are full of sentences that tell us what characters are like. “She was generous.” “He was stubborn.” Those sentences do zero work. Character lives in what people do when nobody’s watching. The…
  • Watercolor illustration of a hooded figure standing at a threshold between a warm glowing open doorway and a moonlit forest path, symbolizing the character arc choice between the familiar and the hard path forward
    The Last Temptation Scene: Why Most Character Arcs Feel Incomplete
    Most character arcs end at the climax. That’s where the protagonist demonstrates new behavior under pressure — the big moment. But the scene most writers skip comes right after. I call it the last temptation…
  • Watercolor illustration of a weaving loom with multicolored threads and a single luminous gold thread running through all of them, symbolizing story theme as the thread that binds everything together
    The Gold Thread: How Theme Really Works in Fiction
    Most writers confuse subject with theme. Subject is what the story is about. Theme is the question it refuses to stop asking. “My story is about grief” isn’t a theme. It’s a filing cabinet category….
  • Vintage theater illustration: a director rushes about the stage focused on set logistics while an actress stands alone in the wings, head bowed, experiencing a private emotional moment he ignores
    The Backwards-Clock Problem: Why Writers Speed Through Emotional Scenes
    Most writers have the pacing backwards. A fight scene gets every punch described in slow motion. A character discovers her husband has been lying for 20 years, and the writer gives it one sentence: “She…
  • Different viewpoints looking at the same scene
    Choosing Your Story’s Viewpoint: A Guide to POV
    Every story is told by someone. The question is: who’s doing the telling, and how much do they know? Viewpoint—or point of view (POV)—is one of the most powerful decisions you’ll make as a writer….
  • Painted illustration of a woman archaeologist excavating from the center of a dig site, with warm golden light glowing from the mosaic beneath her while other workers dig from the edges
    Why Your Draft Doesn’t Have to Start at Page One
    Most writers assume the manuscript works like reading—start at page one and go until “The End.” That assumption kills more novels than any craft problem. The draft isn’t the story. It’s the excavation. And no…
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About Writing Academy

Writing Academy offers comprehensive video courses for aspiring authors. Whether you’re writing your first novel, exploring screenwriting, or ready to publish, our self-paced courses provide the structure and guidance you need.

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Your Instructors

Steve Alcorn

Steve Alcorn

USA Today bestselling author of twenty novels and non-fiction books, including mysteries, young adult novels, children’s books, and the acclaimed writer’s guide How to Fix Your Novel. Steve also founded Alcorn McBride Inc, which provides audio and video systems for theme parks worldwide.

Dani Alcorn

Dani Alcorn

Author, instructor, editor, and mentor. Dani trained in screenwriting at Northwestern University and the University of British Columbia and worked as a professional medical writer. She is the author of screenplays and a science fiction novel.