How to Start a Novel: Eight Options Plus Examples
Writing the first scene of a novel is tricky.| Aliventures
Want more from your writing time? Whether you want to carve out more time, stay focused, or improve specific areas of writing, there's everything you need here.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
Writing the first scene of a novel is tricky.| Aliventures
Writing Resources| Aliventures
This post was originally published in May 2011 and updated in November 2021.| Aliventures
External conflict is vital for your story. These external conflict examples show different types of conflict to deepen your plot and character development.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
This post was inspired by an email conversation with Emma from the brilliant blog Science at Your Doorstep and by a question from an Aliventures reader. It was first published in April 2018 and updated in October 2021.| Aliventures
While the writing process naturally falls into different broad stages, each of us will have a slightly different personal process for moving through and between those stages.| Aliventures
Internal conflict is vital for a rich story and strong character development. Learn the different types of internal conflict here (with handy examples of each).| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
Q & A| Aliventures
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Editing Essentials comes with a couple of extras:| Aliventures
Quick announcement, in case you don’t read to the end: | Aliventures
We’re halfway through 2025 – how’s your writing been going so far this year?| Aliventures
Stories have a beginning, middle, and end … but they don’t necessarily need to be told in that order.| Aliventures
How long is a novel? What about a novella, or even a novelette? Find out the different definitions here and figure out the best length for your own book.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
I’ve covered a lot about developing characters and writing about them, here on Aliventures. I wanted to collect those posts together in one place so you can find them easily.| Aliventures
Are you thinking about sending your story or novel to a beta reader? It can feel really daunting to share your work with someone else to get their thoughts – but direct, specific feedback on your writing is the best way I know of to improve!| Aliventures
Unless you’re creating flash fiction or something decidedly experimental, writing dialogue is essential. Great dialogue can immerse the reader in your book, your world, and most especially your characters. Poor dialogue jars the reader and may even see them put... The post Writing Dialogue: Eight Straightforward Tips (Plus Examples) first appeared on Aliventures.| Aliventures
Your novel needs a protagonist (main character) … but unless you’re writing something highly unusual and experimental, you’ll have a cast of more than just that one person.| Aliventures
I think it’s a safe bet that you’ve come across the apostrophe before. (If not … there are two in the previous sentence.) However, quite a few writers struggle with using apostrophes correctly. And that can really damage your credibility... The post Using Apostrophes Correctly: From the Easy to the Tricky Cases first appeared on Aliventures.| Aliventures
This post was first published in November 2022 and last updated in May 2025.| Aliventures
This post was first published in April 2019 and last updated in May 2025.| Aliventures
We’re into April already! It’s been a pretty good first quarter (Q1) for me, though one with a few challenges.| Aliventures
This post was first published in May 2023 and extensively updated in February 2025.| Aliventures
This post was first published in May 2017 and last updated in January 2025.| Aliventures
Note: This post was first published in 2013, and was last updated in October 2022.| Aliventures
How do you describe characters without boring your reader? Here's how to write character descriptions: what to do, what NOT to do, and plenty of examples.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
Your protagonist has a character arc where they change (for better or worse) throughout the story. But what IS a character arc? That's what we unpack here.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
“Characterisation” is how we show, on the page, who our characters are.| Aliventures
Your friend recommends a thriller to you and tells you it’s “a fantastic page-turner”. Another friend tells you about a sweet romance novel that’s a “gentle, slow burn”. Both your friends are describing something to do with the pace of the stories they’ve enjoyed.| Aliventures
Do you belong to a writers’ group?| Aliventures
If you’ve already purchased one or more packs and need help accessing your download, please email me at ali@aliventures.com.| Aliventures
Looking to pile on the suffering for your characters (or need ways to traumatize your OC)? Here's a list of all kinds of suffering, with tips and examples.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
This post was first published in August 2015, and updated in April 2019. | Aliventures
I’ve written a fair amount about dialogue over the past few years … partly because I love writing dialogue! And I figured it was about time I collated those posts in one place.| Aliventures
This post was originally published in June 2016 and updated in June 2020.| Aliventures
I’m doing NaNoWriMo this month – maybe you are too?| Aliventures
Note: This post was first published with four stages of writing in 2011, and updated in May 2021 to include the publishing stage. Images are used under the Creative Commons 2.0 license.| Aliventures
Sometimes, life is so busy that it’s a real challenge to find any writing time at all.| Aliventures
What is a scene, exactly? (Tip: It's not the same as a chapter.) Here are 7 key ingredients of scenes plus 10 useful tips for writing (or rewriting) them.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
Note: This post was originally published in 2014, and was last updated in May 2021.| Aliventures
This post was first published in April 2019 and updated in April 2022.| Aliventures
Join the Newsletter| Aliventures
Stories run on conflict: internal (in the character's mind) and external. Here's how to get internal vs external conflict right, with lots of examples.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
This post was originally published in April 2016 and updated in July 2021.| Aliventures
Do you make these common mistakes in your writing? Here's what to look out for on a sentence level as you line edit (close edit) your short stories or novels.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
What exactly is bad writing? I take you through detailed examples of bad writing in fiction, explaining what's wrong with them ... and how to fix it.| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
Are you thinking of writing a novel? You might be stuck at the planning stage: how much is enough? What do you REALLY need in place before you begin to write?| Aliventures | Making the most of your writing time
The stories that stick with me are ones where the characters feel like real people, with lives before the story begins … and lives that continue after the final page.| Aliventures
What grips readers and keeps them reading?| Aliventures
