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…

There are so many stories out there that fail to resonate. Every inch of these kind of stories are shallow and meaningless and give no lasting impact. These stories tend to be annoying, forgettable, or just plain horrible. Every writer wants to make a story that sticks with the reader for years to come. No…

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…

A lot of us know that the Hunger Games movie franchise was a huge success. It received millions of dollars in profit and thousands of adoring fans that still love the series to this day. Yet, if you ask any fan, they will undoubtedly tell you that the book was better. Which makes sense, since…

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…

Some character deaths hit harder than others. There have been hundreds of dramatic death scenes, some which have caused readers all over the world to curl into a ball and cry, or maybe just stare at a wall for a few hours feeling sad. These are the types of deaths every author wants to write…

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…

Drastically changed relationships, similar to the enemies-to-lovers troupe, are extremely difficult to keep smooth. As we talked about in my Cruel Prince article human relationships are complicated and hard to get right. One of the most complex relationships, and the one we’ll be discussing today, are friends-to enemies bond.  In one scene, your characters could…

We’ve all seen it a hundred times before. The grizzled old mentor is called out of retirement at last. Hardened and tough from years of experience, he is extremely doubtful and perhaps even adamantly against training someone as inexperienced and arrogant as our young protagonist. But full of energy and will, the stubborn apprentice wins…