Author: Mara Scudder

Character development can be so difficult to maintain. It is easy to highlight flaws and areas of growth in your characters throughout the first few pages. But after the action-packed plot takes over and an exciting series of events plunges your characters (and hopefully your readers) headlong into an amazing story, character development can get…

The more I read, the more convinced I become that the single biggest factor for creating relatable characters is desire. More than having a fear or a goal or a fun personality, once you understand a character’s desire, every action becomes clear, and each plot point has a special meaning. It impacts the characters (and…

Mysteries are some of my favorite forms of storytelling. From a web of connections to breathtaking intrigue and mysterious symbols, the best mysteries use suspense to keep readers on the edge of their seats for hundreds of pages at a time. But not all mysteries do. Many follow the predictable who-dunnit routine, with several innocent…

Some of the best villains in fiction are those that are both ruthlessly evil while also being understandable. While the motivations of awesome villains like Umbridge remain a mystery, some of the most powerful villains can be those that we understand — that might even mirror our own motivations — while also being recognized as…

Cliches are the bane of every young writer’s story. We’ve all had moments while enthusiastically writing when we come to a screeching halt and realize that this character we’ve poured so much time and energy into is actually just the cliche everyone’s heard about a dozen times before. Combing through pages of story plans (if…

Some villains seem more evil than others. As an author, you don’t want your villain to only raise your stakes or move your protagonist’s character arc along. You want your villain to be the most hated, despised character in all of fiction.  And it’s a high bar. Dozens and dozens of villains have been created…

I don’t know about you, but certain fantasy worlds seem almost tangible to me. The writer weaves stunning acts of magic into a system that mirrors our world. They somehow manage to balance two complete opposites to bring about a world that seems just beyond our own. It’s true that sometimes soft magic systems are…

Writing believable character development can often be difficult. After managing to craft a perfect character, corrupting them with a flaw, and then dragging them through enough events to completely destroy them, it often seems impossible to prove that this flaw — which has now been such an integral part of their character — is gone…