As an author, you’re not only competing with other books and storytellers, you’re competing with other forms of entertainment, like movies and television. Why should a reader finish your book when there is endless entertainment available to them? Writing a book that readers finish isn’t as easy as people make it out to be.

As a book coach and developmental editor, the biggest mistake I see in manuscripts is a weak character arc. A weak character arc means that readers won't stay invested in your story. As fiction writers, our primary goal is to get readers to the end of our story. That means you need to do whatever you can to get character development right! Your success as a writer depends on it.

An author’s job is to please and delight readers. This is the joyful, beautiful, wonderful gift of being a writer. Writing success is directly linked to how well we can engage readers. If you are not considering what a reader experiences when they read your story, then it will be incredibly challenging to figure out how to become a successful author.

Writing a novel is a monumental task! Gone are the days of leisurely writing and being paid a living wage for it. Most writers don’t get paid enough to write full-time. Most writers are balancing full-time jobs, children, school or other family responsibilities. Writing is our side-hustle. That’s why it’s incredibly important to learn how to write smarter, not harder.

Colleen Hoover (CoHo) is a romance author and BookTok sensation who has sold over 20 million books. Whether you enjoy her books or hate them, you can’t deny their popularity. So, what can authors learn from CoHo’s writing? I’m going to break down some things Colleen Hoover does really well in her most popular novel It Ends With Us.

When I finished writing my first novel, I typed out ‘The End’, patted myself on the back and gleefully sent it out to readers for feedback. It had taken me many years to work up the dedication and willpower to sit down and finish a novel. I was so proud of myself. I thought the hard work was over and I just knew my readers were going to love it. I waited patiently for their feedback, anticipating all the praise that was about to come my way. But instead, what I got back was loads of red lines, including comments about how boring my story was and how unlikeable my main character was.

Improve your writing process with these tips

Everyone has their own writing process and novel writing strategies that work best for them. I’m not here to tell anyone how to write a novel. Okay, maybe I am, but it’s entirely up to you if you want to take my advice and finish writing a novel faster.

You’re ready to write a book, but you’re not sure where to start. Or maybe you’re an avid creative writer and you want to level up your story skills. Whatever your reasons, the best thing you can do for your writing life is to invest in continuous learning. When you take the time to understand storytelling at a deep level, writing gets a lot faster and easier. Here are my 10 favorite resources for aspiring authors.

When it comes to writing a book, there are different definitions of the word “theme”. It can get confusing, but it’s really important to get strong themes in a novel and be able to express them clearly. If your novel lacks a purposeful theme, it will lack direction and continuity and it won’t hold the interest of readers.

Readers can get tired of too many lines of straight dialogue, so what should we do to break up our dialogue? One of the toughest things about getting dialogue right is figuring out what should surround it. Below are three ways to break up your dialogue and expertly draw readers into your scenes.

Your main character is the beating heart of your story. Your goal is to take them on a transformation journey so powerful that your reader is itching to turn the pages of your novel. Considering how important character is, I’m always surprised at how many writing teachers don’t know how to build proper character arcs.

It’s embarrassing to admit this, but there have been times along my writing journey when I’ve spent more time thinking about how my writing can serve me than how it can serve readers. I became a much better writer when I realized the purpose of my writing is to entertain and inspire others. When I shifted my focus outward, I could better see what I needed to work on to improve my reader’s experience and ultimately my own writing.

During my MFA program, I purposely didn’t take any poetry classes, even though they were available to me. I knew I wasn’t any good at poetry. I wasn’t good at coming up with beautiful images or smart sentences to ellicit emotion from readers. I liked reading it. Absolutely. But writing it, not so much. Now I regret not taking a poetry class.

Giving feedback is an art and most of us are not good at it. As writers who will likely (and really should) exchange work with other writers, feedback is a skill we really need to hone and develop. What’s hard about it is that it requires both empathy and the courage to tell the truth. If we’re not kind enough with our feedback, we could discourage someone or even drive them to quit writing. If we’re not honest with our feedback, we are not helping writers improve and hone their craft. If a writer shares their work with you, it’s a sign of trust. Here are a few ways you can take good care of them and help them improve their story.