#129: Overthinking Themes

Today is the fifth Tuesday of the month, which means that my answer to this heartfelt letter is available exclusively to my Patreon patrons.

#128: Writing for Money, Writing for Joy

Dear Story Nurse, I've been working hard the last year on putting my work out there: shopping a fully edited novel round to agents, pitching and submitting short fiction/game writing and putting some stuff up for free. While I've had a good response when I have a direct audience (i.e. with my alpha readers, free …

#127: The Ethics of Turning Fanfic into Original Fiction

It's extremely common for writers to read or watch something and feel inspired to create an original story. You just had an intermediate step.

#126: The Five Key Ingredients of Plot

Hi, Story Nurse! I’ve created a great cast of characters that I have fleshed out and given a great amount of detail and attention to. While I haven’t fleshed it out completely, I’ve also come up with a world and different species and cultures in it. The problem is, I don’t have a plot. I …

#125: Developing a Secondary Character Within First-Person POV

This question came from the priority request queue for my Patreon patrons. Thanks for your support, letter writer! Dear Story Nurse, I'm doing the pre-work/planning/worldbuilding for a novel I'm super excited about. I've already written one of the scenes that first showed up in my head and gave me the idea for this story, because I …