Give your readers a vicarious experience and you'll suck them in every time. Whether you're writing fiction or creative nonfiction, that means writing great scenes that come alive through dialogue, detail and more. Every scene in your book needs to have a purpose. In...

So you're writing a novel. Congratulations! Whether you're just starting out or already have a carefully crafted plot structure and a draft, you want to make sure of three things above all else: Are your characters believable? Does your main character change because...

Do you aim high when writing? Or do you let a lack of self-confidence get in the way? Have you ever noticed how dogs don't seem to doubt themselves? Give a pup a choice between a stick and a log, and the latter almost always wins out regardless of the pup's size....