Sharing two favorite books about writing

“Take Off Your Pants!” by Libbie Hawker is one of the best books on structure I’ve read. Her book is written for “pantsers” who want to learn how to plot and plan ahead but it works for anyone. She incorporates typical elements of (character flaws, goals, disasters, resolutions) as milestones. I love her method most because it can be iterative, meaning it was the first book I read that showed me how to continue a story beyond the normal three acts, even turn a novel it into a series or a series into a solo novel.

Another book I enjoyed was “Storytelling for Pantsers” by Annalisa Parent and not only because it gave me a glimpse into the erratic mind of someone who writes by the seat of their pants (just kidding). She has a great method for revising drafts that I’ve adopted recently and it’s helped quite a bit.