Hey friends! Gabrielle here, SE’s Pinterest Manager. 🙂 I come to you with an announcement.

*drum roll*

I’d like to start a collaborative Pinterest board specifically for Story Embers subscribers! 😀 This way, those who use Pinterest for platforming can expand their reach, and those who use it for fun can discover content from other SE…[Read more]

Hi Emberlings (or whatever we call ourselves)

I have a question. I’m working on my manuscript and noticed that each chapter has a different word count. Some barely reach 200, most are between 200-300, a few exceed 800 and only two go above 1,000. What is a good word average for a chapter? I figured that ~420 words per chapter=15K, ~550…[Read more]

This is a strange request to make but I need help with writing some bad poetry. I don’t usually write poetry but my current WIP is sort of a romance novel parody so I thought it would be appropriate.

So. Any advice on how to write bad poetry? Or are there any poems/poets out there that you think are particularly bad and could be used as…[Read more]

Hey, guys! I’m considering writing a steampunk something-or-other, and I was wondering if anyone could tell me the aspects, characteristics, stereotypes, etc. of the genre. Also, what time period would it be set in? It seems like it could either be in the distant past or distant future. I’m not sure. Thoughts?

@sarah-inkdragon  @sarah-narnathron …[Read more]

Hey guys, so things are changing.

I just held a planning meeting with the other guild masters and we were talking about how to improve the guild experience so we can all safely say the guilds are the most awesome place for writers to be.

Based on these decisions, we’ve decided to make a few changes. (PLEASE PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION).

First and…[Read more]

Hey guys,

Let’s do something different this week. We talk about characterization a lot, now let’s put it into practice.

For this to work, we’re going to need one or more volunteers. If anyone has a character who isn’t behaving quite how they want them to, post about it here and we’ll have fun dissecting them together and learning from our…[Read more]

Hey Saxon Scribes,

Look out! I’ve got a silver bullet for you today.

This is one of my top favorite articles on character development ever: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/boba-fetts-guide-writing-cool-characters/

Why? Because it teaches you how you can pack tons of characterization into as small a space as a single s…[Read more]

Hey Saxon Scribes,

Could you help us guildmasters out? We launched the guilds to be fun, tight-knit groups where you could inspire each other, keep each other accountable, form great friendships, and improve your craft.

We’ve seen some of these benefits for sure, but we know that there’s plenty of room for us to improve and we want to offer you…[Read more]

Hey Saxon Scribes!

Sorry I missed a week, but I’m back with our annual theme discussion on characterization, trying to dig deeper and cover a lot of ground so at the end of the year you’ll be better at characterization than when we began.

Since we just had our competition to write the best story featuring a five-year-old’s POV, I thought that…[Read more]

*flys in through the window* *throws feathers* I have arrived. Catwing the Catwing of Allore and Kingdom Pen. Greetings Ember people I have finally decide to come and improve my writing skills. *looks around and sees all the embers burning* *grins* Fire is purrtty isn’t it? The sequel of my WIP is called Starting Fires. So much fun! *rubs paws…[Read more]

Recently, I was brainstorming ideas for our discussion on characterization and I came up with something I may have never discussed with anyone before. This is pretty cool, so we’re not waiting another week to dive into it.

I call this “that one thing”.

What is “that one thing”? TOT is a single item, habit, etc that is so often associated with a…[Read more]