Writing Tips

Tropes, archetypes, genres, and story structures are tools - not instructions carved in stone. The goal of these lessons isn't to tell writers what their stories have to be. It's to understand why certain techniques have worked before, then decide how those same ingredients can be rearranged into something that belongs to you.

Understanding why stories work.

Latest Lesson

Three characters can create some of the strongest dynamics in fiction - but only when each member brings something different to the group. This lesson breaks down several varieties of the Power Trio and explores how contrasting personalities, roles, and relationships can keep a three-character cast balanced without making them interchangeable.

How to Write a Team of 3 Characters

How to Write a Team of 4 Characters

The Four-Man Band

How to Write a Team of 5 Characters

The Five-Man Band

The Magnificent Seven Samurai

How to Write a Team of 7 Characters

How to Write Types of Teams

Characters become more interesting when they clash.

A strong ensemble is more than a collection of interesting people. These lessons look at the structures, contrasts, and relationships that hold fictional groups together - from tightly balanced trios to sprawling heroic teams.

How to Write Outcasts into a Crew that Clicks

The Ragtag Bunch of Misfits

How to Write 4 Lieutenants Who Matter

The Elite Four

How to Write Characters

Heroes, mentors, protectors, villains, and everything in between. These lessons explore the recognizable character patterns writers inherit - and how personality, psychology, contradiction, and circumstance can turn those patterns into characters who feel like real people.

How to Write a Genre-Blending Fantasy That Works

Why choose one kind of fantasy when you can have all of them? This lesson explores how fantasy can combine wildly different ideas, creatures, and influences from multiple genres while still feeling balanced, organized, and governed by a world that makes sense.