K.M. Allan's Blog: K.M. Allan, page 5

Writing Tips: Nailing The Start Of Your Story

First impressions count, and that goes for the start of any story.

Grabbing a reader by the first line is a pressure every writer feels, especially when you have to back that line up with an intriguing first paragraph followed by opening pages that will convince someone to keep reading.

If that’s something you want, here are some tips!

Writing Tips: Nailing The Start Of Your StoryHold Back On One Key Detail

While an opening isn’t the place to drown your reader in info-dumping explanations, it’s also not the time to be vague about everything.

To get a good balance, try holding back one key detail.

For example, let’s say your story start involves an erratic driver tearing along a dark, empty highway, internal thoughts of panic, and external mutterings of how “It’ll all go wrong” when they get there.

In this opening, you’ve given the reader the driver, the highway setting, and the impression something bad is about to happen. Where the driver is going is the one detail held back, and keeping that nugget of info out of the opening pages is guaranteed to pique interest.

If you’d held back on other things too, like the dark, empty highway, the panicking internal thoughts, or the out loud mutterings, the reader is left with a driver, driving. I think we can all agree that makes for a boring story start that’s just as lame as telling the reading everything now and leaving no mysterious trail for them to follow.

So, give key details like the who, what, when, and leave one key thing out, like the why, to create an intriguing start to your story.

Remove The Zero Care Factor

This is hard to get right in an opening, but if there is zero care factor for the reader from the get-go, they won’t follow your characters to the last page.

To get the reader on board as quickly as you can, try using an immediate character voice and/or showing your MC in a sympathetic light.

A save the cat moment in the opening pages, where your MC does something heroic or sympathetic to gain the trust of readers—such as saving a cat from a tree, or running into a burning building—helps.

If your story doesn’t allow for such a moment, a character voice that is immediate is your other option.

Think back to any books you’ve read where you just knew from the opening line that this was a character you were going to love going on adventures with. It’s one of those ‘when you know you know’ moments as a reader, and you can achieve it as a writer by knowing your characters well, and refining their voice in your edits until you can nail them in the opening.

Establish A Basic Setting

While you might think you’re doing a good thing by going light on your setting at the start of your story so you can get things moving, if a reader has no clue where things are taking place, all you’re doing is frustrating them.

Setting does not need to be described in minute detail at first, but if you have a lack of setting, it could be hard for a reader to get into your story world.

Make it a habit to describe only what’s necessary to give a sense of that setting. It doesn’t take much. A simple one sentence description of clinking glasses and the drone of chatter over muted music is enough to place your setting in a bar without taking precious paragraphs to do it.

Establish a sense of your settings with some basics and give your story start enough room for other exciting hooks.

Go For Medium Details

Just as too much setting endangers the flow of your book, too much detail about anything in your opening will dramatically slow the pace. You don’t want that. You want your reader to get a sense of everything with detail that’s necessary, not over-the-top.

Don’t stop and describe your character’s royal blue gown ripping at the hand-stitched satin ribbon seams as they escape through a broken tower window. That level of detail can come later when they’re changing out of their gown after escaping to safety. All the reader needs to know in the opening is that their gown got caught on broken glass, upping your tension with the only detail necessary at this point to keep the flow of the amped opening going.

Too little detail can be confusing, too much can slow things down. Aim for a medium balance to keep your start as exciting as possible.

Stick To The Relevantly Current

If you really want to nail your story start, and it works for the tale you’re telling, try to open with relevant, current events.

Random topics or observations that have nothing to do with the predicament of your opening character or situation are a no-go. This is why you see so much advice about kicking things off with an exciting incident. You’re telling this story because something triggered a change in the life of your MC. Why not start with that change, or it’s recuperations?

As an example, we have an MC starting a new job. They didn’t get this job because of a promotion or a fantastic interview. They have it because they were fired from their last job. The details for the firing will come later. The MC is at rock-bottom with this new job. It is their current situation and where the story starts.

How they got into this situation is what will be revealed as the story unfolds, but for now, open with where they are and why, and the reader will come along for the ride—and when you combine that with the other tips here, you should be able to nail the start of any story.

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, and Threads. You can also sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

Subplot Do’s And Don’ts

While some might regard subplots as a way to beef up your word count or add something extra when your chapter goals fall short, they’re more than just a means to lengthen a story.

They’re also mini-stories that run alongside the main plot to give your book interest and depth.

If you’re not using them already, or want to up your subplot game, here are some do’s and don’ts for making the most of them.

Subplot Do’s And Don’tsDo Highlight The Best Parts Of Your Story

Even though subplots aren’t part of the main story, they can help highlight it.

If you want readers to connect with your characters, a subplot that reveals more about them will do that.

For example, let’s say your story is about a hockey player making the cutoff for a team that will change his life. The main story is all about his drive and the things he’ll do to get the position he wants. This could make him appear entitled, one-track-minded, and not relatable. But a subplot that shows he’s caring for a sick family member and the reason he wants on the team so badly is to change both of their lives, softens the character and helps highlight the main story.

Use your subplots to reveal more about your characters, add layers to their arcs, raise the stakes of your main story, and even add to your twists and foreshadowing.

Don’t Stick To A Type

Another great thing about subplots is that you don’t have to stick to a type. While a subplot should be related to what’s happening in the main part of the story, it doesn’t have to follow it exactly.

Just because your MC is a detective trying to solve a grisly murder, doesn’t mean your subplots have to be all heavy or doom and gloom. While the MC is solving the case, they may strike up an unlikely friendship with a witness that brings levity, or a stakeout at a cafe could lead to a small romantic subplot with a server.

When it comes to thinking up subplots to go with your main story, brainstorm ones that will fit in with the overall theme, but also ones that can add an unexpected touch of something else.

Do Link Them To The Main Character

Even though a subplot doesn’t have to be about the MC, try to keep it linked with them in some way. After all, the MC is who the reader will spend the most time with. They have the main plot, and if a subplot is going to take the reader away from it for a chapter or three, there should be a good reason for it.

A subplot where a supporting character goes on their own mission but it’s to benefit the MC will give readers a bond with someone else, and a vested interest in seeing how this little side mission turns out. It could even allow readers to visit parts of your book world that can’t be shown in the main plot.

Such a subplot won’t feel out of place or like it’s a waste of time for readers. But a subplot that doesn’t link back to the main character risks turning a reader off. They may question why they’re now following a character who is coming off as random because what they’re doing isn’t related to the MC or their storyline, and they don’t know why they should care.

Keep your readers happy with a related link to the MC, no matter how loose, in your subplots.

Don’t Make Them The Star Of Your Story

The main plot should be the focus and star of your book, and any subplot used to provide a break from it at key moments for tension, and applied to enhance the main story at crucial times.

If you’ve found yourself at the end of a draft with a subplot that’s more interesting than the story itself, then you have some rewriting to do.

Any subplot that is too good to let go of, or if you’ve been given feedback that says the subplot needs to be the focus of the story, should be worked into your main plot. After that, ensure all other subplots shine a light on the main story, but don’t outshine it.

Do Resolve Them First

When resolving all the hanging threads of your story, keep the main reveals until the end, and resolve the majority, if not all, of the subplots first.

If the subplots feed into the main story like they should, then resolving them is like slotting the final few puzzle pieces in before finishing your jigsaw.

Some subplots, like a romance or friendship resolving or falling apart, may come after the main plot has been resolved. That’s fine. But try to resolve the subplots that you can before the main story so the focus of your readers is in the right place.

Don’t Use Too Many

Like anything, too much of a good thing is too much!

If you have so many subplots that even your writing bible, numerous outlines, and countless notes can’t keep straight what’s happening in the story, you have too many subplots.

In this case, look at each subplot and see what can be cut or combined. A subplot that doesn’t serve the overall story or MC can be cut, while similar subplots or ones that cover the same purpose can be combined to take things down to a less confusing level.

Do Treat Them Like Their Own Story

Although the role of the subplot is to enhance the main story, it should also be treated like its own story with a start, middle, and end.

Let’s say you’re writing a book where the subplot is love interest #1’s quest is to find the MC’s favorite childhood book.

It starts off with them discovering what the book is and planning to get it, and the middle is them locating it. If you ended the subplot there, readers might wonder what the point of it was. The end should be the love interest giving the MC the book, and maybe even the MC realizing their own feelings for the love interest.

The ending resolves the subplot, relates to the MC, and gives readers something to root for. Without the start (finding out about the book), middle (getting the book), and end (giving the book), it’s just a letdown.

No writer wants to let their readers down, so treat your subplots like their own story, and use the other do’s and don’ts here to ensure they’re doing more than just beefing up your word count.

— K.M Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, and Threads. You can also sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

July 2024 Roundup

Welcome to the July 2024 roundup!

Well, after spending the end of June and most of July with strained lower back muscles, including a week on doctor-prescribed muscle relaxers and inflammation meds, I’m finally almost back to normal. That wasn’t fun, and I have no idea what I did to pull the muscles, just that they were sore one morning, and only got worse until I could barely move and got some medical help.

Unsure if my terrible habit of slouching at my writing desk was the culprit (or at the very least, not helpful), I bought a desktop riser that allows you to have a standing desk when needed. Now my cat Luna spends her days sleeping on my abandoned desk chair while her brother, Dash, hogs the home-office cat tower. So, in the end, I guess my back pain was a gain for my writing buddies .

As for what else I got up to in July, read on…

What I’ve Been…Writing

The Checklist Project. This month, I managed to complete draft 2, which involved narrowing down the content I was using (my original blog posts), rewriting, and then creating checklists to accompany each piece of content. The plan now is to do an editing pass for voice consistency, to pick up errors, and to cut words where I can to get the word count down. It’s not as high as it once was, but I’d like it as low as possible while including the most helpful content so that the eventual book will be available at a reasonable price. If I complete these goals for draft 3, I’ll then have a version to format into the vision I (and my formatter/cover designer) have for the book, before passing it on to beta readers for their feedback.

Watching

A Quiet Place: Day One

Even though it’s the prequel, Day One is the best movie in the franchise so far. There are plenty of jump scares, and I think knowing that it’s blind aliens that invaded Earth only helps make the frantic nature of the arrival scenes even better.

This story concentrates on Sammy (played by the always excellent Lupita Nyong’o), a hospice patient out for a day in the city with other patients and a nurse. All she wants is pizza, and her insistence on getting it even when things fall apart, seems strange until the movie reveals why it’s so important. By this time, she’s met another lost survivor, Eric (Joseph Quinn), and they help each other get to where they need to be—her pizza place, and him onto a boat that’s taking survivors to an island (yes the one revealed in A Quiet Place 2).

This is an emotional story, and it’s so brilliantly acted and paced that my only gripe was the silly logistical reappearance and disappearance of Sammy’s cat as they trek from one side of the city to the other.

A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder (TV Adaption)

After loving the book (see the review below), I dove right into the TV adaption, but as the saying goes… the book was better. While the series was fine, following most of the same beats as the book, and featuring the same murderer resolution, I just didn’t like the changes made to pack the storyline into 6 episodes. It felt like it missed the layering of the characters, and it also couldn’t feature all of the secrets and tension built up so beautifully in the book.

One thing I will give the adaption props for is the romance between Pip and Ravi coming across stronger in the TV version, and that all the actors did the characters justice. If you haven’t read the book, I’m sure you’d enjoy the series without issue, so I’m still recommending it for those who like small-town murder mysteries.

Twisters

I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a reboot or a sequel to the 1996 original, Twister, but Twisters does a great job at being both, and it’s own movie. While it follows the same story beat of a group of twister chasers wanting to use science to save lives, this time there’s also a group of online influences who follow the tornadoes to shoot content for their fans.

As both groups find themselves in a once-in-a-generation tornado storm, they need to work together to survive. There’s more action, special effects, and the natural chemistry of the leads (played by Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones) adds another watchable layer to this return of blockbuster popcorn movies.

Deadpool And Wolverine

NO SPOILERS. Since the movie has just opened, all I’m going to say is that it’s most definitely worth seeing, and seeing it before spoilers make their way to the Internet. There are so many surprises, and they’re even better if you don’t know anything about them. Other than that, Deadpool And Wolverine is funny, quippy, gory, and emotional in all the right places. The soundtrack is also awesome.

Reading

A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder (Book #1) by Holly Jackson

When Pip does her final high school assignment on the 5-year-old murder of Andi Bell, most think she’s crazy. Even more so when she’s the only one who believes that the since-dead murderer, Andie’s boyfriend and Pip’s friend, Sal, was innocent.

Teaming up with Sal’s reluctant brother, Pip, and Ravi work through the clues, ignore threats, and uncover more than just the truth about Andi and Sal’s deaths, but a stash of secrets that threaten to tear families and the little town they live in apart.

I listened to the audiobook and found the voice acting gave this mystery that I enjoyed so much a whole other level. All the twists and reveals were pulled off in a way that, even if you’d guessed them, it was satisfying to have your hunches proved right. This is the first book in a series of three, and I will most definitely be getting the audiobooks for the others, too.

All You Took From Me by Lisa Kenway

In this psychological thriller from debut author, Lisa Kenway, Dr Clare Carpenter, wakes from a coma to discover a car accident took her husband and her memories of the last few months.

As she’s piecing her life back together, threatening messages from a stranger, and flickers of memories she can’t be sure are real, makes Clare question not only herself, but if the man she married was who she thought.

When her past and present collide, Clare puts her job as an anaesthetist at risk, as well as her mental health using hypnosis to uncover what’s been blanked out. Clare is a strong woman, but not without her flaws. Her grief for her husband, a lost close friendship, and the years-old shunning of her estranged family compound, adding layers to her character, and setting up inevitable truths when the well-foreshadowed twists fill the final chapters.

While the first half of the book is a slow burn, and the story goes in directions you didn’t think it would, the action-packed climax is thrilling, making All You Took From Me a satisfying read, crafted by a talented writer who knows how to meld beautiful prose and gritty storytelling to create an intriguing page-turner.

The One That I Want by Sandy Barker

This is the third book in the Ever After Agency series, and it’s been my favorite so far! Poppy is back, hired by the head of a magazine to help the editor of her digital imprint through a series of good and bad dates for content and to secretly help her find love.

Although Greta loves her job and it’s been a rewarding career where she’s just hit her most successful goal, she fears her other goals of romance, traveling, and family are slipping away. While the dates get Greta on board with finding a match, when one turns out to be her dream on paper, it gets complicated when a man she’s struck up a friendship with at the coffee shop near her office feels like he could be the one.

As usual with Sandy Barker’s books, there’s humor, romance, great characters, and little nods to this fun romance series’ past and future books. I found this book delightful, and I’m sure fans of light-hearted romance will feel the same.

A Flash In The Dark by Steven Smith

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of flash fiction and short stories from author, Steven Smith. A Flash In The Dark features a good mix of everything from fantasy, dark crime, psychological thrillers, sci-fi, an emotional story about an imperfect doll, and even an inspiring Christmas story.

Standouts for me were Coming Home, about an astronaut’s exploration to Mars that features a fantastic twist. The life and demise of a musician across Windy City Blues and Sin City Sorrow. The joy and pitfalls of being a writer in Underwood and Writer’s Retreat. The ghostly, A Haunted King. And the leaves-you-wanting-more crime thrillers, Inside Job, and Insomnia. Even with the mix of genres, the author’s engaging and beautifully written prose ties all of the stories together, and I’d happily read another collection by him.

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your books/recommendations! You can also find and follow my reviews and book recommendations on Amazon and BookBub.

If you’d like to add the Blackbirch books to your Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf and/or check out the reviews, click the following links:

Blackbirch: The BeginningBlackbirch: The Dark HalfBlackbirch: The RitualBlackbirch: The Collector Taking Photos Of

Sunrise soaked clouds. I’ve seen so many on my cold winter walks, and it makes the early morning starts (almost) bearable.

Blackbirch Review Of The Month

This month’s review is for the third Blackbirch book, The Ritual. This was the hardest book of the series to pull together, and at one point, I spent a whole year doing rewrites. Once I got the basic story right, however, it was smooth sailing, and the feedback for it has been great, as this lovely review shows!

On The Blog

In case you missed any of my posts, or want to re-read them, here are the latest blogs.

June 2024 RoundupWriting Tips: When To Reveal A SecretTypes Of Foreshadowing

And that’s it for this month. I hope you’ve enjoyed my July Roundup. Let me know what you got up to in the comments!

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Threads, and sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

Types Of Foreshadowing

If you’ve always wanted to use foreshadowing in your stories, but weren’t sure what type to use, or even what they are—this blog post is for you!

Adding foreshadowing to your book is great because it allows hints of what’s coming and prepares readers for the inevitable outcome or big twist you’ll throw in at the end.

Types Of Foreshadowing

There are a few different types you can choose between or combine if you want to create the ultimate foreshadowing experience, such as…

Prophecy

This is one of my favorite forms of foreshadowing, because who doesn’t love cryptic hints of what’s to come?

With prophecy foreshadowing, you get to tell the reader an outcome of events in the story or what’s likely regarding the destiny of your MC, but you get to be all fun and mysterious about it by using fortunes and omens.

To play it up, you can be specific by laying out the MC’s entire journey using a 100-year-old story in a book, or be unclear about the road they’ll take with hints that go in directions other than the usual.

You’re really only limited by your imagination and how your book world, plot, or characters work to fit prophecy foreshadowing into your chapters.

Concrete

Also known as Chekov’s Gun, this is the most common and easiest form of foreshadowing to use.

Concrete foreshadowing is where your book will outright state something to the reader, sometimes a seemingly insignificant thing, that then pops up later—significantly.

Basically, if you mention it—whether it’s a long-lost relative, a missing trinket, a red car, or a rare book—that item/thing/person should show up and pay off their significance in another part of the story.

Ideally, this will be during the dramatic ending, in the characters cracking the case scene, or at the best/worst possible moment. But, any time you want to answer the question of your concrete foreshadowing is up to you.

Symbolic

If you prefer your foreshadowing to be subtle, this is your best option.

There will be no obvious clues in your book as you hint at things. Instead, you’ll use other elements as a symbol for what’s ahead.

A classic example of this is a character who will die seeing a crow before their demise. The crow, being a traditional symbol of death, signifies to any reader who knows such a detail that death is coming.

This is why symbolic foreshadowing is so subtle and tricky. If you’re going to use it, research symbolism as much as you can, and implement the widely known examples for your best shot of readers picking this type of foreshadowing up.

Red Herring

Next to prophecy foreshadowing, red herring is the most fun you can have with this writing trick. That’s because you get to send your characters and readers on a wild goose chase!

Red herrings exist to throw everyone off the scent, injecting all the mystery, surprise, suspicion, and intrigue that can be handled by your plot. You don’t even need to be writing a mystery to implement a red herring as it can be used for just about anything.

Let’s go for a basic example here and have your MC find a sealed envelope in their room. It’s already been mentioned that an aunt was sending something, so the reader may assume she is the sender. That is until the girl next door strongly hints at slipping something into the MC’s letterbox. Now the reader is thinking the letter could be from her. But did it even come through the mail? It’s just an envelope, with no postage marks. In fact, it looks suspiciously like the same envelope the MC’s best friend had at school at the start of the book…

Now there are three possibilities, more than one red herring, and a question the reader wants to find an answer to. Give it to them after throwing at least one stellar red herring their way.

Flashback/Flashforward

For our final foreshadowing type, it’s about using flashbacks or flashforwards (or even flashsideways if you’re going the Lost route) to tell readers the info they need to know that doesn’t happen in the current storyline.

An example of this would be using a flashback to reveal the details of the devastating car accident that led to the previously established knowledge of the MC’s fear of driving.

Or you could flashforward to the outcome of an event at a point in the story when the journey of how the characters get there, or the outcome, isn’t yet clear. This glimpse of the future should spark the interest of your readers, urging them to keep turning the page.

And now you know about the foreshadowing types you can play with when writing.

If you’re worried foreshadowing will spoil twists, don’t. When done right, it will only enhance them.

Even if readers are good enough to guess where your foreshadowing is going, pulling it off effectively should leave them smugly confirming their hunches and studying your book to see how you brilliantly pulled off your trickery. What you don’t want is readers feeling ripped off by your twists or outcomes because the foreshadowing was done poorly, or was too subtle or confusing.

Picking the right type of foreshadowing goes a long way to avoiding this, so choose wisely, and check out my Foreshadowing Tips blog post to help you nail it.

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, and Threads. You can also sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

Writing Tips: When To Reveal A Secret

No matter if your book has one big secret or so many little ones that every character is hiding something, the trick to making the most of any secret is knowing exactly when to reveal it.

Writing Tips: When To Reveal A Secret

Now, if you’re thinking your story isn’t a mystery, a murder, or a treasure-hunting adventure, and therefore it isn’t full of secrets, don’t despair! Any type of story can include a secret, and it’s usually more interesting if it does.

Secrets hook readers, and just one, even if it’s relegated to the sidelines of the tiniest subplot, can still enhance your story with these tips!

In Your Endings

Like a plot twist, a secret can come into your story anytime. For the reveal, however, timing is everything. To make the most of it, reveal it to the reader during your endings.

Secrets revealed at the end of a chapter beg the reader to keep reading, while secrets revealed at the end of the book bring the story to an appropriate close, regardless of whether the secret is big, small, shocking, sad, or happy. Or a secret will grab a reader if the reveal serves to close off one book and set up the next in the case of a series.

Whatever the type of ending yours is, a secret reveal during it will only benefit your story.

When It Leads To Something Bigger

Another option over adding a secret at the very end of a chapter is saving it for when it will lead to something bigger.

Dropping the secret reveal within a chapter, either at the start or mid-way, means you can reserve those coveted closing sentences for something more surprising than the secret—like its consequences!

As an example, let’s say you’ve revealed halfway through chapter 5 that the main character’s big secret is that he cheated on a final exam and hid the cheat sheet in what he thought was a random bag. That backpack turned out to be his best friend’s, and the chapter ends with the consequences of that cheating secret—his friend being caught out and expelled!

While placing the secret reveal at the end of the chapter would also work, having it halfway through allows you to build tension with the hiding of the evidence, and then the consequences of his best friend getting the blame is the icing on the cake/secret.

When It Will Have Impact

If you really want to get some mileage out of a secret and its reveal, save it for when it will have the most impact.

Using the MC in the last example, dropping the reveal that he’s the cheater has exposed a secret to the reader, and created consequences, but what if the best friend being caught with the cheat sheet in his bag is instead the only event revealed? The secret of his best friend, the MC, being the real cheater, is then left for later.

If, after the best friend has been expelled and his future ruined, he then discovers the MC’s cheating/stashing evidence secret, there’s a bigger impact.

Someone the best friend trusted, someone who comforted him, and tried to vouch for him, was the person who did the act he was blamed for, even if it was unintentional.

Such a scenario is more fun to write, and the secret reveal has a bigger impact on the characters and the story.

When It Changes Things Dramatically

The best secrets prompt change, either within the characters themselves or the story, so it’s the perfect tip to end this post on.

A secret revealed might put the main character on a different path. It will destroy relationships. It could make it so they can’t go back to the life they once had. In our example case, it’s likely the MC and his best friend will never be friends again. The reveal of the MC’s secret has changed things dramatically. It could also alter their lives.

The MC might get into a great college based on his rigged exam results and leave his best friend and his hometown behind, never to look back. Or, he could confess/be outed by his best friend when the secret is revealed. The MC is then expelled instead, never leaving behind a life he’d been so desperate to escape he thought cheating was the only to do it.

Secrets can be powerful in any story, and revealing them to create a dramatic change can be just as impactful. Use such a tip and the others here, and you’ll have the secret to revealing secrets in your own writing.

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, and Threads. You can also sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

June 2024 Roundup

Welcome to the June 2024 roundup!

And now we’re officially into the last half of the year with June over. Can you believe it? I can’t. I swear we were just celebrating New Year’s last month. The first 6 months of 2024 may have rushed by with little writing to show for it (in my case), but I’m determined to spend the next 6 months hitting as many writing goals as I can.

As for what else I got up to in June, please read on…

What I’ve Been…Writing

The Checklist Project. I spent most of this month working through draft 2 of my checklist writing book. As I mentioned in last month’s roundup, it was way too big, so when I caught up with my writing friend, Belinda, I showed her what I had, told her what my plans for the book were, and asked her what she wanted as a writer when using such a book. Her advice helped me focus the content on writing and editing, and I think I’ve struck a good balance with enough other content to offer a bonus ebook at some point. So now, the plan is to continue shaping the writing and editing checklists until I have a draft to show to my betas.

Watching

Dead Boy Detectives

Run by teen ghosts, Charles and Edwin, both of whom avoided moving on after their own deaths, Dead Boys Detective Agency helps other ghosts solve problems before going into the afterlife. This entangles them with Crystal, a live human psychic once possessed by a demon who can see ghosts. Niko, a Japanese exchange student who is so infectious and pixie-like that she’s a great contrast to Jenny, an emo who runs a butcher shop they all end up living above. There are mysterious cases, witches, a cat king who tries to run the town, and lots of supernatural fun and scares as we learn more about the characters, how Charles and Edwin died, and what they’ll all do for each other when death catches up with them.

Under The Bridge

When writer Rebecca Godfrey goes home with hopes it’ll inspire a story about where she grew up, she doesn’t expect to get caught up in the case of a missing teen girl. After spreading rumors about a former friend, Reena Virk is set upon by a group at a party and chased under the bridge. The group swears they left her alive, but when Reena’s body shows up washed downriver, the group turns on each other. What follows is a heartbreaking true story of family, fitting in, lies, racism, white privilege, and how the legal system treats young offenders of different circumstances. With stunning performances from all of the cast, it’s worth a watch if you’re a fan of gritty true crime.

Sweet Tooth (Final Season)

The third season of Sweet Tooth dropped this month and wrapped up the story of hybrids and the last of the humans. Gus finally sets off to find his mother, who is in Alaska trying to find the cave where the sick (the disease that’s wiping out humanity) originated. Also on the hunt for the location is Mrs. Zhang. Her second daughter is pregnant and she wants a cure to ensure a human child is born. Convinced the cave holds this secret too, it’s a race for everyone to get there first. Building upon the lore established since season 1 and the character relationships, this final season brings everything together beautifully, and I highly recommend it for fans of dystopian fantasy.

Hacks (Season 3)

Hacks continues its run as one of the best shows out there for season 3. After hitting it big with her truthful comedy special, Deborah is a huge celebrity again and wants to go after the one job that has always alluded her— being the first female host of a late-night TV show. She of course brings Ava along for the ride, and that’s where this comedy shines. It perfectly portrays the ups and downs of Deborah and Ava’s friendship and the way they teach each other about the needs and expectations of each other’s generation. Jimmy and Kayla also get a bigger look-in this season, taking their new-found status as a talent agency that serves the older generation and upscaling it in the most bumbling of ways.

Reading

Vanishing Act by M.L. Davis

A solid debut from a gifted writer who knows how to create intrigue and tension. As each chapter swaps back and forth between the two main characters, it also switches between the past and the present day. In the present day, Austin’s life has been turned upside down when an abandoned child watching his street performance disappears just as Austin is trying to get him help.

Labeled as a murderer, Austin loses his relationship and the confidence to perform his magic act. Then, just as he’s trying to let go of the mistakes he made, the boy’s mother, Amber, reappears, roping Austin in to help find her missing son. What follows is a story of secrets, gaslighting, lies, and an explosive finale that turns everything you thought you knew on its head. Recommended for fans of page-turning mysteries where you’re never sure who to trust.

Open Evening by Lee Hall

This was a quick read, with an entertaining enough premise where teens at an open evening for their school are suddenly overrun by creatures intent on killing everything in their path. There’s a great use of a creepy catchphrase, and it has the right settings and characters for a creature apocalypse, however nothing that was developed enough for my tastes. It may suit a young teen just delving into supernatural stories who is trying to decide if they like the genre.

The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade

When Casey’s sister Sutton returns after mysteriously disappearing, Casey is the only person she recognizes and seems to like. Trouble is, Casey and Sutton despise each other. Convinced it’s an act she must get to the bottom of, Casey discovers things about her sister she didn’t know. The duel POV is entertaining, and the hints of the hoodoo slave magic spirituality practices of Sutton and Casey’s family, along with other missing girls, a corner-cutting cheer coach, and a weird Pastor, filled out the storyline, but it just failed to come together enough for me.

The majority of the book is focused on Casey’s complaints about her sister, some of which are redeemed by Sutton’s flashbacks. The real mystery of who took Sutton (and a very intriguing supernatural twist) only happens in the very last chapters, making the pace slow, and the resolution too quick. Still, the book did hold my attention, and I wanted to keep reading to see where it went. If you’re a fan of Black history and the healing of family and intergenerational trauma, The Shadow Sister has this in spades. I just wish it was as heavy on the mysterious supernatural element the book blurb promised.

Christopher Pike Books

Inspired by the Netflix series, The Midnight Club, I’m re-reading the books of my favorite author, Christopher Pike, and enjoying the nostalgia and reading for fun and not to review.

For my fourth book this month, I finished my re-read of Christopher Pike’s novels. It took me 18 months to read his 60 books—finishing this month with his 2007 Adult Novel, Falling.

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your books/recommendations! You can also find and follow my reviews and book recommendations on Amazon and BookBub.

If you’d like to add the Blackbirch books to your Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf and/or check out the reviews, click the following links:

Blackbirch: The BeginningBlackbirch: The Dark HalfBlackbirch: The RitualBlackbirch: The Collector Taking Photos Of

Cafe Writing and Winter Mornings. This month, I had a writer catchup with Belinda Grant where we did some cafe writing and devoured a delicious brunch. As we’re in winter here in Australia, my morning walks and photos have taken on a very frosty aesthetic.

Blackbirch Teaser Of The Month

This month’s teaser is from the final Blackbirch book, The Collector. It’s a moment when Josh Taylor realizes something bad is about to happen. What will that be? You’ll have to get the book to find out.

On The Blog

In case you missed any of my posts, or want to re-read them, here are the latest blogs.

May 2024 RoundupHow To Elevate The Descriptions In Your BookCharacter Flaws: Types And Guidelines

Other Features…

A big thank you to talented writer Pauline Yates for interviewing me as part of her Author Spotlight Series. You can read the fun interview at the link below (and see cute pictures of my cats!).

Also below is a YouTube link to the latest episode of The Australian Book Lovers Podcast where the awesome Veronica Strachan included her 5-star review of Blackbirch: The Collector. Thank you, V. It was a lovely surprise to hear when listening.

Author Spotlight: K.M. AllanAustralian Book Lovers Podcast Episode 11

And that’s it for this month. I hope you’ve enjoyed my June Roundup. Let me know what you got up to in the comments!

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Threads, and sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

Character Flaws: Types And Guidelines

One key to making your characters relatable is with flaws. They’re (fictional) humans after all, and none of us are without flaws.

Like humans, not all flaws are created equal, and some carry more weight than others. If you’d like to ensure you’re infusing your characters with the flaws that will make or break them and give your story and readers exactly what they need—read on!

Character Flaws: Types

The level of flaws depends on the story you’re telling, but a good idea is to use a combination. While a character with no flaws is a boring Mary-Sue, you also don’t want your characters to be so flawed that your readers won’t root for them. Even villains should have flaws that both redeem and vilify them.

Can Live With It Flaws

These are the minor flaws that will keep your good guys good, and not turn most of your readers against them.

Relatability is a big part of Live With It Flaws and will get a reader on the same side as your characters. These flaws should be about things a reader will forgive and can be as tame or as mundane as you like, such as…

Someone who thinks pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza (it does).A person who excessively cleans.A people-pleaser.Can Change Them Flaws

The next level of flaws are a little more major and should be flaws that will rub a reader the wrong way, but still be something your character will change or overcome throughout the story to show their growth.

Stubbornness.Not letting others help.Cheating.Lies that lead to something bad.Can’t Come Back From Flaws

These are the character flaws that don’t bring about change or the ones that change things for the worse, with your characters not heeding the lessons taught.

A character who refuses to let anyone in and ends up alone.A flaw they don’t change that leads to their downfall.An act so wrong it can’t be forgiven.Character Flaws: GuidelinesAdd Relatability

Regardless of the level of flaw added, all flaws must be relatable.

Even if the situation in your book isn’t something every reader might have done, if you add a relatability element, they will bring their own level of understanding.

Just as not every reader is a parent dealing with a sick child, they’ve been that child, or they have a pet, or they’ve undertaken a caretaker role at work or with their parents. They know the overwhelming tiredness of it all, and that understanding will make them relate when your character’s flaw is to snap at someone or be rude at the end of a long day.

Add A Solution

The flaws must be overcome for satisfaction—either fully or partly.

Yes, some flaws will never change. A Live With It Flaw like your character being over-organized and annoying to others isn’t a flaw that goes away by the closing chapters as it’s essentially who that character is. But learning to balance that flaw and not be so rigid is an acceptable, satisfying solution that will pacify readers.

Add A Transformation

A flaw works well when it transforms the character, even if it’s not all positive.

The key to a satisfying character arc is that your characters aren’t the same at the end of your book as they are at the start, so give them a flaw that will help transform them.

Tailor It

The final tip for character flaws is tailoring said flaws to each character.

While it’s not uncommon for more than one character to fear open water, your MC may fear the ocean because of a trauma in their childhood. The backstory for the flaw may help you build them up and flesh out your plot, so tailoring the fear to them specifically is a win-win.

Even if two characters share a flaw to bond, you can manifest the flaw differently for both. One character could use their fear of failure to drive them to great heights, while another uses the same flaw to evolve into a shut-in who never leaves their home.

Tailoring flaws in a way that works for your characters is one reason character types and their guidelines can help create well-rounded fictional people. Use that with the other tips here, and you should end up with characters that real people will want to read about—flaws and all.

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, and Threads. You can also sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

How To Elevate The Descriptions In Your Book

When it comes to creating an immersive book world for your readers, it boils down to the little details.

But how many precious words do you dedicate to detail when you have so many other things to include? The answer is only what you need to, by playing it smarter and elevating the descriptions in your book to all the right elements while still leaving room for everything else.

How To Elevate The Descriptions In Your BookStart With The General Description

When writing a description, you have to start somewhere, especially during the first draft when all you’re trying to do is write your way into the story. It’s easy during that process to go with a general description so you can move through your scenes as quickly as possible.

There’s no time to wax poetic about the unique sparkle of each rainbow layer as it reaches across the sky on a day your MC is just simply getting out of the house after a storm. Go with what’s generic, such as what most people will think of during a scene after a storm—raindrops, chilly air, dark clouds.

Use this general description as your base and fill it with the most obvious answers.

Add In The Different Description

The first step to elevating your descriptions after creating your generic base starts during the next round of edits. This is when you’ll be adding what’s different to the norm.

Keeping with our rain theme, something different could be that it’s not always cold when it rains. Sometimes there’s sunlight and a sticky warmth that makes the raindrops a refreshing reprieve.

Brainstorm the different things you can add to your description to take it from a typical description to something more. It doesn’t need to be wacky or out there, just something above the typical.

Sprinkle In The Right Elements

After you’ve nailed down a mix of basic and unique elements in your description, it’s time to sprinkle in the right elements. This is where your description moves beyond the visual to something with more depth.

POV

Any descriptions in your book usually come about because of your character’s POV, so lean into that and write from the place of how things look to them.

What would your MC notice about the old office their new promotion has moved them into? Or what would they see and feel when a bow-wrapped gift lands on their desk?

Another way to stick to their unique POV is knowing what they wouldn’t include in their thoughts or actions. If your male main character isn’t the type to notice what everyone around them is wearing, don’t add clothing descriptions when you’re writing from their head. Keep that for the fashion major POV character of chapter three.

Stick with descriptions that are relevant to the POV character and see them automatically elevate while also giving each character their own way of standing out.

Relatability

Using well-known elements in your descriptions will already help here, but go the extra mile by adding a personal touch, too.

If you love stormy rain because afterward everything feels clean, or because rainfall usually leads to lush grass and colorful flowers, mention that during your descriptions.

Readers may feel the same way, and you’ve upped the relatability by adding something that they’ll love and connect with.

Senses

It’s tried and true, and that’s why it’s important.

Adding the five senses of touch, smell, taste, sight, and sound will make your descriptions as immersive as possible. It can be as simple as writing what the MC smells and tastes when the burger they’re eating is the tenth they’ve had in as many days on an endless business road trip.

Include how their mouth waters when they imagine the home-cooked meal they’ll have when they’re off the road, and how it’ll look and taste in contrast to the lifeless, beige, greasy, smelly burger they’re eating now.

Adding senses to your descriptions is a great way to up their elevation.

Showing Instead Of Telling

Yep, this old nugget of writing advice applies to descriptions too!

After all, wouldn’t your book world be better if, instead of telling the reader how the flying broomstick transportation system works, your descriptions show them how your characters glide through the air via a vivid description? The answer is and always will be, yes!

Use your descriptions to show off your fictional world and the characters in it instead of just telling the reader what they look like, how they act, and how things work.

The better your description details, the better the picture you’ll create, so make your book rich in descriptions that are elevated above and beyond the usual during your next editing pass and see how well it can work for you.

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, and Threads. You can also sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

May 2024 Roundup

Welcome to the May 2024 roundup!

Can you believe we are about to cross into the 6th month of the year? This first half of 2024 truly has flown by, and although I didn’t start any serious writing until this month, I’m still hoping to release a book by the end of the year. It won’t be a work of fiction, but rather my non-fiction Checklist Book Project (not the title), which has given me a sense of purpose again. That was something I’d lost after publishing my final Blackbirch book last November, and even though this isn’t a creative writing project, it’s scratching that writing itch for me—and I’m loving it!

As for what else I got up to in May, please read on…

What I’ve Been…Writing

Blogs and The Checklist Project. Even though I feel like I haven’t achieved much so far this year, I did get a little ahead on my blog posts, which means I was able to spend most of my writing time this month deciding what content to have in my Checklist Project. Because it’s me, I added way too much and ended up with 160 pieces of content to sort through. This was made up of 1 intro, 8 writing routines, 4 blog posts, and 147 checklists, 17 of which are new checklist ideas that still need to be written (the others are existing checklists that need to be updated, or blog posts that need to be converted). I then started the task of categorizing them and going through each one to see what would work and what wouldn’t. It’s been both cathartic and frustrating. As of today, I’ve cut 28 checklists and first-draft edited 60. There’s still a lot to do, but I’m having fun, and I hope this project will be as helpful to other writers as I’d like it to be when all is said and done.

Watching

The Idea Of You

There’s been a lot of chatter about the age gap between the characters, and Anne Hathaway being a 41-year-old woman playing—shock horror—a 40-year-old woman. The only thing I found off about this movie was her character being a pretentious art gallery owner. When Solène goes to Coachella with her 16-year-old daughter, she crosses paths with 24-year-old boy band member, Hayes Campbell, and there’s an instant attraction. It’s something she tries to put out of her mind until he turns up at her art gallery and buys the place out. A relationship ensues, at first in secret, and then in front of the world, leading to family and business issues, and an ending that is different to the book. I’m glad about that change because I enjoyed the end of the movie. Both Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine were great as Solène and Hayes. I think showing more of their connection rather than montages of them laughing, and more of Solène’s business partner (who has a bigger role in the book) would have made some aspects more believable, but it’s fun for what it was—a romantic comedy that mostly works.

Baby Reindeer

If you heard this series was about stalking, you heard right. But if that’s all you’ve heard, then be prepared if/when you sit down to watch it. It’s a trigger-filled show about the worst of people, and situations. When Donny, a failed comedian working in a bar, gives a cup of tea to a woman named Martha, he doesn’t realize it will kick off years of stalking, or lead him to deal with the trauma he experienced that blew up his relationships and derailed his career. This is an emotional show that will stay with you and is worthy of the attention it’s been getting.

Girls5Eva (Seasons 1-3)

A shoutout to writer Jodie Fitzsimons for posting about this show on her blog because it was the perfect, lighthearted entertainment I needed this month. Girls5Eva is about a 90s girl group band that reforms when a rapper samples one of their hits. There’s Wickie, the lead vocalist running from a washed-up life. Dawn, who after settling into motherhood and wife-life, wants to be the songwriter the band never allowed her to be. Summer, the girl who grew up always being told what to do. And Gloria, who never enjoyed their fame as someone who was in the closet at the time. She’s purposely played by an actress who is double the age of everyone else to make fun of the absurd entertainment industry—and that’s the beauty of this show. The flashbacks to the totally inappropriate 90s Girls5Eva songs, the situations they found themselves in, and the jokes the show makes about past and present pop culture and celebrity are why it’s worth a watch.

Young Sheldon (Final Season)

(Spoilers) It may have morphed into a show about the characters in the family rather than just about Young Sheldon over the 7-year run, but that’s the reason why this series ended so emotionally as it did. The episode where the family finds out about George’s heart attack, and the funeral episode that follows is so crushing you’d have to have no heart to not shed a tear. The final episode reveals the whole series was a grown Sheldon writing his memoir, and conceded that all the awful stories he’d told about his dad and family in the 12-year run of The Big Bang Theory were his way of coping with a death that was the first time he’d really dealt with emotions in his life. Now that he is the same age as his father, he could see the kind of man George really was—and it was the perfect way to conclude the show.

Reading

The Car Share by Lucy Mitchell

This is one of those reads that is just so fun to immerse yourself in. Matteo and Lia are strangers dealing with the failing health of older parents, death, and relationship breakdowns that have scarred them. When their circumstances lead them to a car share service, they meet each other and Stella, one of the best book characters I’ve come across in a while. She’s loud, her children are teenage monsters, and she has an unreliable friend named Useful Kim who is never that useful at all. Her antics are entertaining against the main story of Matteo and Lia carrying demons from past relationships, a frosty friends-to-lovers move, and the running commentary about commutes from the radio DJ they listen to during their drives. The Car Share is about finding new friends, new loves, and who you used to be, from a writer who knows how to pull all of the right heartstrings.

The Blood Curse (Gardens of War & Wasteland #2) by Jessica A. McMinn

Just as entertaining as the first book, The Blood Curse continues the adventures of Amika, her fallen prince brother, Kio, his demon lover Rei-Hai, and Kriah, another chosen along with Amika who has been separated from their mission but is trying to get back to them to help break the seals to release the Goddess. They need this now more than ever as a blood curse begins sweeping the lands. Author Jessica A. McMinn knows how to create a fantastical world and even more fascinating characters as reunions are emotional, relationships grow and deepen, and prickly characters become favorites as the action-packed story unfolds. Highly recommended for fans of dark fantasy stories with LGBTIQA+ representation.

Rebel Rising by Rebel Wilson

Funny, relatable, and full of life lessons, Rebel Rising spends the majority of the memoir focusing on Rebel’s childhood and high school years, including the fever dream she had while on a trip to Africa where she contracted Malaria and hallucinated about winning an Oscar. This led her to pursue the love of acting she acquired as a theater kid in high school, and she did it while also studying to be a lawyer. After her acting career took off in Australia, Rebel made the move to America, where she delved into both the good and bad things that acting brought into her life. Touching on life events such as losing a parent, dating, the struggles of polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity, and IVF and surrogacy journeys, there’s also some fun celebrity name-dropping and the book touches on much more than the sensational headlines that surrounded its release.

Christopher Pike Books

Inspired by the Netflix series, The Midnight Club, I’m re-reading the books of my favorite author, Christopher Pike, and enjoying the nostalgia and reading for fun and not to review. In 2022/2023, I read Pike’s YA books. For 2024, I’m reading his Adult books.

This month I read The Blind Mirror.

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your books/recommendations! You can also find and follow my reviews and book recommendations on Amazon and BookBub.

If you’d like to add the Blackbirch books to your Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf and/or check out the reviews, click the following links:

Blackbirch: The BeginningBlackbirch: The Dark HalfBlackbirch: The RitualBlackbirch: The Collector Taking Photos Of

The aurora, winter walks, and an ARC. This month, like the rest of the world, I saw the aurora and was able to snap a pic. Winter has come on cold and fast here in Melbourne, making my morning walks chilly but beautiful. I also received some book mail from the UK when my very awesome friend and fellow blogger, M.L. Davis, sent me an ARC of her debut novel, Vanishing Act. I beta read her excellent mystery a few years ago and can’t wait to read the published version ahead of its July release.

Blackbirch Teaser Of The Month

This month’s teaser is one of my favorite mysteries from The Beginning. Guidance counselor, Arden Flynn, is recounting the time an otherworldly fire took the lives of his firefighting unit but spared him. Or did it? You’ll have to read the book to find out if you haven’t already.

On The Blog

In case you missed any of my posts, or want to re-read them, here are the latest blogs.

April 2024 RoundupWriting A Book: When To Dump An Internal QuestionMaking The Most Of The Stakes In Your Story

And that’s it for this month. I hope you’ve enjoyed my May Roundup. Let me know what you got up to in the comments!

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Threads, and sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

Making The Most Of The Stakes In Your Story

Ah, story stakes. They’re one of those fun writing elements that can make or break the tale you’re telling.

With no stakes, a story is in danger of boring the reader. Stakes too low will ask them to question why they should care, or stakes so ridiculously high you tip over into Do-Not-Finish territory because your story has become eye-rollingly bad.

So, how do you ensure your story stakes are the best they can be? Give these tips a try!

Making The Most Of The Stakes In Your StoryStart Small

While it’s perfectly fine to start your story with stakes laid bare to get the reader on board, if the first stakes they come across are the biggest, there’s just nowhere for the story to go.

Stakes work best when they start out small and spiral into something bigger, so keep that in mind and plan accordingly.

Build The Stakes

After starting small, it’s important to build on the stakes. Losing a bet might be a small stake for your MC, but if that bet loss leads to a gambling issue that then leads to a job loss, a relationship loss, and even a loss of life, that small stake builds to the biggest stake of the story and makes things worse for your MC.

That’s the beauty of stakes, and that’s what will keep readers turning the pages.

Don’t Repeat the Stakes

While you’ll need to build the stakes, don’t fall into the trap of repeating them.

If you find your MC trapped in the dark more than once, even if it’s under different circumstances, you’re just repeating stakes to create mini cliffhangers or interesting chapter endings without actually using the stakes to your advantage.

Create and keep the tension with different stakes and don’t rehash similar stakes.

Don’t Go Overboard

While your final stake should be big enough to shift your character, circumstances, or outcome, it should never be so high that it becomes ridiculous.

One of the fastest ways to lose readers is by ripping away their care factor when the stakes get so overboard that the situation your character is in loses its place in reality. Yes, you want the highest stakes to mean something, but if it’s too unbelievable, you’ll risk screwing up the ending and losing the reader.

Personalize The Stakes

Obviously, this depends on the story being told, but if you can, keep the stakes as something that affects the characters.

A bomb killing an office full of random people versus a bomb killing the MC’s husband are two very different stakes. Both will add interest to your story, but only one will make the reader really care about what is happening.

Add A Condition

When the major stakes are resolved, it’s usually down to the MC winning or the MC losing. While both will create a satisfactory or disappointing ending, a win/lose stake resolution can be seen a mile away.

The cop living his career dream and stopping the serial killer from killing the girl is a classic stake. It will cause the classic good triumphing evil ending that readers expect/want, but in what condition does the cop “win”?

Is he injured so badly during the last battle that he can no longer be a cop? Resolve the predictable stakes, but add something unpredictable too. You’ll satisfy the classic side of the stake, but give something new that the reader will care/think about after finishing the last chapter.

Sacrifice Stakes

Stakes that end with a sacrifice are like candy to a sweet tooth but don’t immediately think this means killing off your MC to save the world.

A sacrifice stake can be small like the MC giving up their life in the city to move to the country when the cowboy makes them fall in love on that one last trip back home. Or a side character giving up their share in a business deal so someone else can benefit.

If the story allows it, add a sacrifice stake—big or small—that means something to one or more of your characters. If the sacrifice works for them and the story, it will work for the reader too.

And there you have some tips to make the most of the stakes in your story. My favorite one is not repeating stakes, which is something I learned after doing that very thing! What’s your favorite stake to add to your stories? Let me know in the comments!

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, and Threads. You can also sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!