The Story Craft Cafe Podcast

Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files, Codex Alera, and the Cinder Spires, joins us live on Story Craft Cafe to talk about the hardest moment in any series. The "All Is Lost" beat. The point where everything your protagonist has built comes apart, right before the climax.

We're asking Jim how he lands this beat across a long-running series (one that started over 20 years ago and is still going). How does "All Is Lost" work in bo...

We hosted a free live training Thursday, April 9 at 10 am Eastern (watch the replay here) all about developmental editing, one of the most important (and most overlooked) parts of the editing process. 

The training was with WSJ bestselling author and book coach, Joe Bunting, who will be talking about how to get the most out of the revision process, plus the dev editing tools that can make the process faster.

In the training, Joe wi...

Elizabeth Arnott is an award-winning writer and journalist and has written critically acclaimed historical fiction as Lizzie Pook. Her work—covering everything from true crime to Arctic exploration—has featured in publications including The Sunday Times, National Geographic, The New York Times Book Review, and The Guardian. She lives with her husband and their young daughter in London, where she spends far too much time drinking ic...

TAYLOR ADAMS is the author of several acclaimed thrillers, including The Last Word, Hairpin Bridge, and No Exit. No Exit has been published in thirty-two languages and is a Hulu Original film. Adams lives in Washington State.

Revered by authors and readers alike for his singular cinematic intensity and the tenacious, unforgettable characters who drive it, Adams plunges us deep underground in this harrowing tale of a caving expediti...

Writing a book is hard work, but hard work can be satisfying and fun. Having an idea and knowing where that idea is going can sometimes be the easy part. We've all heard the trite question, "where do your ideas come from?" asked of every author we've come to respect and admire. But here's the truth: Ideas are EVERYWHERE. The bigger, and most important, question is: How do you take that whisp of an idea and turn it into an actionabl...

Preston & Child, the New York Times bestselling author duo known as Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child individually, are at the top of their game. Their writing has been praised as “consistently exciting and never predictable” (Associated Press) and “[there’s] nothing else like them” (Washington Post).

 PENDERGAST: The Beginning joins Pendergast as a brazen rookie under the supervision of Special Agent Chambers. While investigat...

Matthew F. Jones is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels as well as a number of screenplays. His novels have been widely translated and several times have been named on best novels of the year lists. Three of his novels, A Single Shot, Deepwater and Boot Tracks, have been made into major motion pictures. He has taught creative writing at a number of colleges and universities, including Randolph Macon College, Lynchburg C...

It’s been five years since heiress Clare Monroe tragically died on New Year's Eve at her family's fabulous Italian estate. Since that time, her college roommates have harbored a dark secret--their lies and misdeeds led to her death all those years ago.

What happened that fateful night was a series of horrible accidents, but Luca, Harper, Sirina, and David are guilty, nonetheless. And their desperate decision to conceal the truth de...

We all love a good writing challenge, don't we? NaNoWriMo (RIP) was an excellent challenge that helped a ton of writers get started as writers. We at Dabble even started our very own 60 Day Novel Challenge to help encourage and empower people to take that plunge and get their novels written, but do we have to wait until October or November to write? What if you're inspired in the middle of Spring? The good news is that most writers...