The protagonist—or the main character of your story, the star of the show—is often tricky. I’ve got two questions I ask myself about my protagonist that can be useful in figuring out who they should be if I’m starting, but they’re also useful later as a diagnostic tool—if you think your protagonist might be a bit boring, you can ask yourself these questions and use the answers to help spice them up a bit. 

You can find a transcript of this episode at my website, where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram.

This is something that happens to everyone—I don’t buy it when people say they never have writer’s block. They might call it by another name, but there’s no creative out there who doesn’t sometimes have a moment, or a day, or a week… or longer… when they either don’t know how to push forward with their story, or can’t seem to make themselves. So how to you get past writer's block when it happens? I have four suggestions for ways to tackle it.

You can find a transcript of this episode at my website, where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram.

I work hard to make my stories unputdownable; there’s an art to getting a chapter just right. I’ve got four tips for you when it comes to keeping readers up well past their bedtime.

You can find a transcript of this episode at my website, where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram.

When we hit those paragraphs that are just the author telling you stuff they want you to know about their world, we call them infodumps. We need to show readers what’s different about our world, but the truth is that we don’t think or speak about this stuff very often. Nobody gets on their commuter train every morning and thinks: “Once upon a time this would have been a steam train, but these days modern technology has advanced.” So why should our characters? How do we show our reader what’s different about our world without just dumping it in there? 

You can find a transcript of this episode at my website, where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram.

Welcome to Amie Kaufman on Writing, a short podcast that answers one question each week about how writers do what they do. If you’re a writer, or you’re a reader interested in how your favourite authors craft their stories, then you’re in the right place.

This season, we’re going to cover lots of topics: worldbuilding—how to do it and how to show it—figuring out who your protagonist is and where your story starts, dealing with writer’s block or getting stuck, figuring out where to end a chapter, plotting techniques and more. But in this first episode, I want to talk a little about who I am and why this stuff matters so much to me.

You can find a transcript of this episode at my website, where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram.

Building a world for your story or your series is a huge job, and though we all know the one about how the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, how do you figure out which step to take first? This isn’t just a problem if you need to invent an original world—say, for a sci-fi or fantasy novel. Your novel can be set at a high school in America and still need worldbuilding. So where do you begin?

You'll find a transcript of this episode at my website, where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram.