Every published Quill & Reed guide, by topic. New guides are added only once they have been written and reviewed.
69 guides ·
Start Writing
An idea becomes a book by moving through a rough sequence: idea, then a clearer premise or purpose, then a defined reader, then a workable structure, then a first draft, then revision. Each stage narrows and strengthens the last. Skipping straight from idea to finished book rarely works, but skipping stages under pressure to plan perfectly does not either.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
You begin by writing, learning and revising; experience is built through practice, not acquired first. First-time writers benefit from understanding a few basics early, including structure, what readers expect, how drafting differs from editing, and how to use feedback, but none of this needs to be mastered before you start a first draft.
4 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
Plan only enough to give yourself direction: a premise or purpose, a sense of the reader, a rough list of key sections or scenes, and a loose idea of the beginning, middle and outcome. The plan should point you somewhere, not account for every page in advance.
3 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
Start with a premise, a protagonist, what they want, what stops them, and what happens if they fail. Add a point of view and an opening situation that creates movement rather than background. You do not need the entire plot worked out before writing; many novelists discover much of it while drafting.
4 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
A first chapter needs to orient the reader — who, where, roughly what kind of book this is — while giving them a reason to keep reading. It does not need to explain everything, resolve anything or introduce the whole cast. Write it, accept it will need revising once you know how the book ends, and move on to chapter two.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
A first chapter usually needs enough of six things to work: a character worth following, a situation, a sense of setting, a consistent tone, some form of question or conflict, and forward movement. The exact balance depends on genre — a thriller leans on conflict, a memoir often leans on tone and situation — but leaving out all six at once is what tends to make an opening feel flat.
4 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
Do not start by assuming the book has to cover your whole life. Choose a central thread first — a period, a theme or a change you went through — and build the book around that, not around chronology alone. A life story becomes a memoir when it has a shape: a beginning, a central question and something that has shifted by the end.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
Start by deciding what you want the reader to understand, feel or learn from what you went through, then select only the experiences that serve that purpose. Personal experience is material for a book, not automatically its structure — the shape has to be built deliberately, whether the result is a memoir, narrative non-fiction, or a practical book informed by what you have lived through.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
Start with who the book is for and the specific problem, outcome or point of view it offers them, not with everything you know about your field. A business book works when a defined reader can see, chapter by chapter, how it moves them from their current problem towards a clearer way of thinking or acting — supported by examples, not overloaded with them.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
Start with the age of the intended reader, because age drives almost everything else: vocabulary, story length, complexity, structure and even the physical format of the book. Decide whether you are writing a picture book, an early reader or a chapter book before you plan the story, then keep the plot simple, the character clear and the language suited to reading aloud.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
Choose the part of your life the book is actually about and shape it around a central theme, period or transformation, rather than trying to cover everything. A memoir works best with a clear scope, a timeline of the key events that matter to that theme, and honest handling of voice, real people and difficult material, revised carefully before anyone else reads it.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
There is no fixed timeline. How long a book takes depends on the target word count, how often you write, how much research it needs, how complex the material is, how much revision follows the draft, and how much time you genuinely have available. Simple arithmetic on word count and daily output gives a rough drafting estimate, but that is not the same as the total time to a finished, edited book.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
Choose a target you can sustain, not one copied from another writer. For some writers that may be 250 words a day; for others, 500, 1,000 or more. Consistency across weeks and months matters far more than the size of the daily number, and working backwards from your deadline and available writing days will give you a more useful target than picking a round figure.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Start Writing
Yes, but the practical question is not whether you can find huge blocks of spare time. It is whether you can protect a repeatable amount of writing time for long enough, whether that is three short sessions a week or two longer weekend sessions. Small, regular sessions add up over months, and a realistic schedule that fits your actual life will outlast an ambitious one that does not.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Planning can help, but there is no requirement to fully outline a novel before drafting. Useful planning ranges from a one-paragraph premise to a full chapter outline, and both extremes work for different writers. The right amount is whatever gives you enough direction to keep writing without smothering the discovery that happens on the page.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Outlining a book usually follows the same basic process regardless of type: define what the book is about, identify the reader or protagonist, list the major sections or events, put them in a logical order, identify gaps, then start writing and revise the outline as the draft teaches you more. The detail you add within that process depends on the kind of book.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
There is no single best structure for a novel. Most effective structures create a setup, an escalation, meaningful turning points, a climax and a resolution, but the exact shape (three acts, four parts, circular, multiple timelines) varies by genre and by story. The right structure is the one that lets your particular story build and pay off.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
There is no required number of chapters. The right count depends on total length, typical chapter length for the genre, pacing and how the story or argument naturally breaks into units. Two books of the same word count can reasonably have very different chapter counts depending on how each author chooses to divide the material.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
There is no universal chapter length. A chapter should usually be long enough to complete a meaningful unit of story or argument and short enough to maintain momentum. Typical lengths vary widely by genre and purpose, from a page or two in some thrillers to several thousand words in literary fiction or non-fiction.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
There is no single correct novel length. Word count varies by genre, age category, audience expectation and how much story the plot genuinely needs. Commercial fiction generally runs 70,000–100,000 words, literary fiction and fantasy can run longer, and YA and short commercial novels can run shorter. These are conventions publishers and readers are used to, not fixed rules.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Most published memoirs fall roughly between 60,000 and 90,000 words, but the more useful question is not the number, it is whether the book has enough space to develop its central experience properly, without trying to include everything that happened. A tightly focused memoir often needs fewer words than a broader one covering several life periods.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
"Children’s book" covers wildly different products, so length depends first on age group and format, not on a single word count. A picture book, an early reader, a chapter book and a middle-grade novel each follow different conventions, from under 500 words to well over 30,000. Decide the age range and format first, then look at typical length within that category.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
A business book should be long enough to properly explain its core idea or solve the reader’s problem, and no longer. Many run 30,000–50,000 words, shorter than most fiction, because readers want the framework and how to apply it, not padding to make the book look substantial. Length depends on audience, complexity, framework, examples and purpose.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Three-act structure describes a story in three broad functions: Act One sets up the world, character and central problem; Act Two escalates and complicates that problem through rising conflict; Act Three brings it to a climax and resolves it. These are broad structural functions, not fixed percentages or a rigid formula every novel must follow exactly.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
No. Three-act structure is a useful model for thinking about setup, escalation and resolution, not a legal requirement for fiction. Many published, well-regarded novels do not visibly use it, working instead through four-part, episodic, circular or multiple-timeline structures. What every novel needs is coherent progression, not a labelled act break.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
A story arc tracks meaningful change across a book: something usually moves from one situation, through conflict, toward a changed outcome. This can apply to plot, character, emotion or a relationship, and often several arcs run at once. To build one, define the starting state, what disrupts it, how pressure escalates and what the changed state looks like by the end.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Start by fixing a protagonist, a goal, opposition, and stakes, then identify the inciting event that starts the story moving. Build a rough sequence through escalation, a midpoint shift, a major setback, a climax and a resolution, connecting each stage by cause and effect rather than a list of things that simply happen next.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
A useful subplot contributes something the main plot alone cannot: it might deepen a character, create additional conflict, reinforce a theme, complicate the main plot, or develop a relationship. It should connect to the main story at some point, rather than running alongside it as an unrelated parallel thread, and should resolve before or with the main plot rather than being abandoned.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
A strong plot usually has a clear central problem, meaningful consequences, escalating difficulty, cause-and-effect progression, real turning points and a resolution that grows from what came before. Weakness tends to show up as predictability, unearned coincidence, or a middle section where nothing changes for several scenes in a row. Testing a plot in one honest paragraph often reveals which of these is missing.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
First identify exactly what is broken: a missing cause, impossible timing, inconsistent character knowledge, a contradiction, an unexplained convenience or a broken world rule. Then trace the problem back to the earliest point it was created and fix it there, rather than patching the scene where you noticed it.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
A book outline is a practical map of what happens, or what each section needs to achieve, written down so you can see the whole shape at once. It can be as simple as a one-page list of beats or chapters, or as detailed as scene-by-scene notes. The right level of detail depends on how much structure you need to feel confident starting to write.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Neither approach is universally better. Plotters plan the story’s shape before drafting; pantsers, or discovery writers, work out much of the story while writing it. Many experienced writers use a hybrid of both. The more useful question is which approach helps you actually finish a draft, not which one sounds more professional.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Capture ideas first, wherever they occur, without judging or sorting them in the moment. Then, on a separate occasion, sort what you have into functional groups such as scenes, characters, research, chapters, themes, open questions and a timeline, using one central system rather than scattering notes across several apps and notebooks.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Use software that makes it easy to write, save, organise, back up and revise, without getting in the way of drafting. A plain word processor such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word is enough for most first-time writers. Dedicated novel-writing software adds organisational tools that suit longer or more complex projects, but no specific program is required to write a book.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Believable characters need more than a list of traits. They usually become convincing when the reader understands what a character wants, what they fear, what they believe, what they hide, how they behave under pressure, and where their behaviour quietly contradicts itself. Consistency is less important than a coherent inner logic.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Developing a main character usually starts with what they want, why they want it, and what stands in the way. From there, add what they are willing to do to get it, what they misunderstand about themselves, and how the events of the story force them to change or reveal who they really are. The result should feel like a specific person under specific pressure.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
There is no ideal number of characters for a novel. A book needs enough characters to perform meaningful story roles, such as antagonist, ally or foil, without so many that readers lose track of who matters and why. The right cast size depends on genre, scope and how much page time each character actually needs.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
A character arc tracks how a character’s beliefs, behaviour, identity or circumstances change across a story. It can be positive (they grow), negative (they decline), flat (they stay essentially the same while proving or testing who they are), or incomplete (change is underway but unresolved), depending on what the story is trying to do.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Realistic dialogue usually feels natural without copying real speech exactly. Good dialogue tends to reveal character, create tension, move the scene forward, hide as much as it states, and sound distinct enough that a reader could tell speakers apart without dialogue tags. Real transcribed speech, by contrast, is often too repetitive and shapeless to read well.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
There is no correct percentage of dialogue in a novel. The right balance depends on genre, narrative style, what a scene needs to do and whose point of view the reader is in. A more useful question than "how much" is whether the dialogue on the page is carrying its share of the story, rather than filling space around it.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Readers do not need to like a character to care about them; they need a reason to stay emotionally interested. That reason usually comes from a clear desire, some vulnerability, a contradiction worth watching, choices that carry real consequence and enough recognisable humanity that the reader can imagine feeling the same pressure the character feels.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
A believable antagonist usually sees some internal logic in their own actions, even if the reader or protagonist rejects it. They need a clear motivation, a workable goal, real constraints, sufficient capability to be a genuine threat, and a believable relationship to the protagonist’s central conflict. They do not necessarily need to be sympathetic.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Introduce a character through something meaningful: an action, a decision, a moment of conflict, a piece of dialogue or a distinctive piece of behaviour, rather than stopping the story to deliver a biography or a full physical description. Readers form first impressions from what a character does, not from what they are told about them.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Give the reader the details that matter in the moment, then add more naturally as the scene and story develop. Description tends to work best when it is filtered through point of view, revealed through action or emotion, and chosen because it is distinctive, rather than delivered as a complete inventory before the story continues.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Multiple point of view works when each viewpoint contributes something the story genuinely needs: information the others cannot see, a different stake in the same events, or a contrasting way of understanding them. Readers should always know whose head they are in, why the viewpoint changed, and what this character uniquely adds to the story.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Neither is inherently better. Choose the perspective that gives your story the right level of intimacy, distance, information and flexibility: first person for closeness to one mind, third-person limited for a balance of closeness and control, third-person omniscient for scope across many characters. Many stories work in more than one; the choice depends on what the book needs.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Yes. A novel can use multiple perspectives, or even different POV styles, as long as the changes are intentional, clearly signalled and useful to the story. Confusion in multi-perspective novels usually comes from uncontrolled shifting within a scene, not from the existence of more than one viewpoint across the book.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Tension comes from uncertainty plus consequence: the reader needs to understand what could happen, why it matters, and why the outcome is genuinely uncertain. It does not require constant danger or action; a quiet conversation can be as tense as a chase, if the stakes and uncertainty are clear.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Suspense makes the reader anticipate a specific uncertain outcome. It usually relies on a clear threat or question, consequences the reader has been made to care about, limited or carefully controlled information, and time pressure, all building towards a reveal that pays off what was withheld rather than delaying it indefinitely.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Good foreshadowing gives the reader information that seems natural before the reveal and meaningful afterwards. The clue should be visible, plausible, easy to misinterpret and genuinely connected to the eventual truth, so a rereader can find it without a first-time reader noticing it as a signpost.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
A strong plot twist changes the reader’s understanding of what came before while still feeling fair in retrospect. It needs setup earlier in the story, concealment that misdirects without lying, plausibility once revealed, and consequences that ripple through the rest of the book rather than being tidied away.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
An ending should resolve the book’s central promises in a way that feels earned by the events and choices that came before. It does not need to answer every possible question, but the reader should be able to see how the climax caused the ending, and how it changed the protagonist both externally and internally.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Do not try to eliminate every familiar idea; genres depend on some shared conventions. Instead, look for places where the writing uses an automatic phrase, a predictable character type or a familiar scene without adding anything specific to it, and replace only those with something rooted in the particular details of your own story.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
"Show, don’t tell" means letting the reader experience important moments through action, dialogue, sensory detail, behaviour and specific observation, instead of always summarising the meaning directly. But telling is also useful: it moves the story through less important information quickly, and used well it is a legitimate tool, not a failure of craft.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Unfinished books usually stall for identifiable reasons rather than one mysterious lack of talent. Common causes include unclear structure, perfectionism, writing without knowing what happens next, an unrealistic routine, weak stakes, repeatedly restarting, fear of the finished book being judged, and ordinary life and time pressures. Naming the actual cause is the first useful step.
9 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Writer’s block is a symptom, not a single problem, so treat it as a question: is this not knowing what happens next, perfectionism, fatigue, a research gap, fear, boredom, lack of time, or a structural issue? Each cause needs a different response, and not every block can be solved by forcing yourself to produce words.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Do not rely on motivation alone; it fades on any long project. Build a process that keeps working when enthusiasm drops: small, specific targets, visible progress, a clearly defined next action, a realistic routine, occasional milestones, and accountability where it genuinely helps. The routine should be able to survive weeks when you do not feel like writing at all.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Find the last point where the story still felt alive, then ask what the protagonist wants now, what is stopping them, what has changed recently, and what decision should logically come next. Often the stall is caused by the original plan forcing a scene the story no longer needs, rather than by any failure of effort.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Do not ask only "what would be interesting?" Ask what the character wants, what logically follows from the previous event, what would make achieving the goal harder, and what choice would create real consequences. Working from cause and effect, rather than from a search for exciting incidents, usually produces the next scene reliably.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Small corrections are fine. Repeatedly rewriting earlier chapters is often what stops a draft from ever being finished. Go back only when a structural change affects everything ahead, or when continuity needs fixing so you can keep writing coherently. Otherwise, leave a note describing the change and carry on.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
Writing Craft
Reduce the remaining book to a sequence of manageable writing sessions, and stop trying to make the draft publication-ready while you are still creating it. Know roughly where the story or argument is going, set weekly rather than daily targets, leave placeholders for problems, and protect momentum right through to a genuine last page.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
AI for Authors
Yes, ChatGPT can help with parts of the writing process, including brainstorming, outlining, structural questions, organising notes, spotting inconsistencies and generating planning exercises. But the author remains responsible for the book’s ideas, voice, facts, judgement and final text; ChatGPT is a support tool, not a co-author.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
AI for Authors
You can use AI tools while writing a novel, but there is a real difference between using AI to support planning, brainstorming or feedback, and using it to generate substantial parts of the manuscript itself. As involvement increases, so do the practical, creative and publishing implications; there is no single answer that applies equally to every level of use.
7 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
AI for Authors
Yes. AI can help a writer explore premise, structure, plot options, character goals, obstacles, timelines, chapter ideas and research questions, working well as a questioning partner. The author should still decide what actually belongs in the story, since generated plans tend towards generic and predictable choices.
4 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
AI for Authors
AI can help authors ask better questions about a character, test motivations, identify contradictions and explore relationships. It is less useful when asked simply to generate a "unique character," because the result can easily become generic, drawing on familiar patterns rather than the specific, lived detail that makes a character feel real.
5 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
AI for Authors
Authors can use AI most effectively for questioning, organisation, planning, pattern detection, research preparation, continuity checks, revision analysis and marketing ideas, while keeping authorship, fact-checking and final judgement human. A simple rule of thumb: AI should help you think, check, organise and question, not decide everything, verify itself or become the author.
4 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
AI for Authors
There is no universal publishing-industry rule. Different publishers, agents and competitions may have their own policies on AI-assisted or AI-generated work. What tends to matter is how AI was used, how much generated material exists, disclosure, copyright and originality, and the specific publisher’s own policy, which can vary considerably.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
AI for Authors
There is no single best AI tool for every writer. The more useful question is what task you need help with: brainstorming, planning, drafting support, editing, grammar, continuity, transcription, research organisation or marketing. This guide groups tools by use case rather than ranking them, and it is reviewed quarterly because this market changes quickly.
6 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
AI for Authors
AI tools can help with parts of editing, such as flagging typos, inconsistencies and repeated words, or suggesting alternative phrasings. They cannot reliably judge whether a book works as a whole, and they sometimes introduce errors or flatten a writer’s voice. Treat AI as a checking aid alongside your own revision and professional editing, not as a replacement for either.
3 min read · Updated 26 September 2026
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