Jesse's nuggets: A solid beginning is needed when writing a great book. Don't fear a blank page, you've got to start somewhere. Nothing is set in stone, so there's no pressure to be perfect on your first try. There are lots of ways to begin a story. Don't be afraid to try several before picking. How does a 100m sprint begin? The natural response might be thinking of the sound of a pistol firing--that's tradition, afterall. But there's a lot more that goes into the start of a

Jesse's Nuggets: A solid cast of characters is key to a good story. Know your character inside and out. To do this, put your character in the middle of different hypothetical situations and consider how he/she might react. Immitation is the best form of flattery. It's a cliche statement, for sure, but it's also a very true one in many ways. For writers, in particular, we immitate a lot. I'd call us scoundrels and thieves, but this is a pro-writing blog, so we'll use "immitate

Jesse's Nuggets: Don't sweat coming up with brilliant ideas. The best ideas can come from the world around you. Try to "disconnect" long enough to find inspiration around you. One question I hear more than any other is this: how do you come up with your ideas? Whether it's for characters, stories, settings, or combinations of all three, ideas are occasionally hard to come by, even for the most creative minds. But I'm not convinced it has to be this way. Today I'm going to sha