Justin Attas, featured at Jane Friedman

Image: final puzzle piece falling into place

The Puzzle-Piece Plotting Method: Using What You Know to Build What You Don’t

For some, the most intimidating part of writing a novel is the plotting. Here’s one way: Puzzle-Piece the story together from details you already know.

Trying to Make Your Story “Unique”? Beware of These Common Pitfalls

Writers always seek to produce a unique story—but this can lead to creating a character or story that is “different” sheerly for the sake of, well, being different.