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Demystifying writing & publishing

WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO

Book Architecture: How to Plot and Outline Without Using a Formula

I coauthored a chapter on how Rowling outlined Harry Potter.

Finish Your Book in Three Drafts: How to Write a Book, Revise a Book, and Complete a Book While You Still Love It

I contributed to this awesome multimedia writing book.

RECENT POSTS

  • What Self-Publishers Need to Know about Virtual Co-op (Genre Categories, Pt II)

    12.20.17

    Co-op can be enormously detrimental to indie authors if not understood and handled well.

  • How Genre Categories Can Make or Break Your Book (Pt I)

    12.20.17

    With millions of books published every year, most don’t even leave a ripple. The ones that do capitalize on genre categories.

  • MuggleNet Academia Podcast: How to Write Like Rowling

    MuggleNet Academia Podcast: How to Write Like Rowling

    12.20.17

    Check out my podcast with MuggleNet Academia where I talk about the dos and don’ts of imitating famous writers.

  • Finish Your Book in Three Drafts by Stuart Horwitz

    Finish Your Book in Three Drafts (Yes, Really)

    06.13.16

    Have you been working on your book for so long that you can’t remember when you started it and can’t see how you’ll finish it?

  • 4 Mistakes That Can Cost You the Best Sellers List writelikerowling.com

    4 Mistakes That Can Cost Your Book the Best Sellers List (Genre Categories, Pt III)

    12.20.17

    Many authors—and even publishing houses—don’t understand Amazon’s genre categories. But if you don’t understand them, your book is almost guaranteed lackluster sales.

POPULAR POSTS

  • Perseverance Harry Potter Write Rowling

    Rowling’s Life as an Author: What It Was Really Like Writing Harry Potter

    06.16.15

    Perhaps ordinary readers only need to know Rowling’s fairy-tale ending, but us writers need to know the not-so-glamorous version of what it was like to write Harry Potter.

  • Behind the Scenes: How Rowling Revised Harry Potter

    Behind the Scenes of a Bestseller: How Rowling Revised ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’

    03.26.15

    A grid that tracks all of Rowling’s changes between her outline and the final ‘Order of the Phoenix.’ She leaves very little untouched.

  • How to Write a Bestseller, J. K. Rowling

    How Rowling Turned a Story Idea into a Best-Selling Series (Rowling’s Outline and the Book Architecture Method, Pt I)

    10.08.13

    Although Rowling uses the word ‘plot,’ notice her outline isn’t one chaotic column that’s trying to track everything.

  • Story Structure in Harry Potter, Hogwarts Castle

    Story Structure in Harry Potter: How Rowling Became a Billionaire by Following the Rules (Pt I)

    07.18.13

    The Harry Potter series was groundbreaking in many ways, but the foundation of Rowling’s success was her reliance on basic story structure.

  • Rowling Hook Page One

    5 Ways Rowling Hooked Us on Page One

    03.09.12

    Agents and editors get swamped by unsolicited manuscripts every day. Here’s how Rowling escaped the slushpile with her first page in ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.’

Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers 2016

MORE STORY STRUCTURE

  • Story Structure in Order of the Phoenix Rowling

    Story Structure in ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’

    03.20.14

    An analysis of story structure in Rowling’s longest, beastliest Harry Potter book.

GET PUBLISHED

  • Nail Your Pitch

    Nail Your Pitch: Avoid the Common Pitfalls, Sell Your Story

    05.02.14

    When Rowling wrote ‘Sorcerer’s Stone,’ she didn’t have a platform or an audience—so how did word get around?

OTHER PLACES I’VE POSTED

What every writer needs to know about Adele, Gwen Stefani, and Seinfeld

FIND MORE IN THE ARCHIVES!

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