NYT Bestselling young adult and middle-grade author Jonathan Auxier joins Mary Kole to discuss visual writing, worldbuilding, and how different media use dialogue to create action.

Writing a series? You’ll want to pay special attention to making Book One pop. Getting that first book right, though, can be a tall order. Make sure to include the following elements for a captivating Book One.

Of all your fictional characters’ features, names are crucial. Wondering how to name characters in a fantasy novel? For tips on giving your fantasy novel’s character the perfect names, read on.

Tune in for a chat with Mary Kole's long-time friend in the children's publishing space, YA Author J.C. Geiger. He tells all about how he made an epic mixtape with music no one's heard before (and met his heroes in the process), and talks about writing young adult characters, the future of post-pandemic fiction, and—of course—the power of music.

Author and former assistant professor of creative writing Leslie C. Youngblood joins Mary Kole on the Good Story Podcast. She shares her journey through her MFA program, gives tips on crafting interesting character relationships, and weighs in on one of the hottest questions for authors today: traditional or self-publishing?

Is it just me, or does it seem like retellings and reimagined stories are everywhere you look? Whether I’m on the Kindle page or surfing Netflix, it seems like everyone’s telling familiar tales in different ways. Here’s more about this trend and why it matters.

Wondering how to write diverse characters? Many writers aspire to create worlds that look like a true fusion of personalities and cultures, religious beliefs, and ethnicities. How do we create art that imitates the life we are striving for?

NYT Bestselling young adult and middle-grade author Jonathan Auxier joins Mary Kole to discuss visual writing, worldbuilding, and how different media use dialogue to create action.

Books that teach life lessons are fine...as long as you don't clobber readers over the head with your theme. So how do you weave a message into your story without being too obvious?

If you're wondering how many characters you should put in your novel, or how big your cast of characters should be (or how small), check out this video.

Story ideas don’t always come easily, but sometimes we get glimmers that turn into a list of foggy ideas. How do we decide which new idea to run with? And how do we take steps to make it shine?

Historical and fantasy author Gail Carson Levine interviews with Mary Kole. She shares thoughts on the writing process, world-building, and her latest book, A Ceiling Made of Eggshells.

On this month's episode, children's author Anna Staniszewski chats about her path to publication, writing for different age groups, and what it takes to make it as a full-time author.

Anthropomorphic animals in children’s fiction are common, but are these characters the best approach when you’re writing for young readers? Let’s talk about this popular topic for children’s writers by defining what an anthropomorphic animal is.

A fantasy premise that doesn’t engage on any themes of good versus evil can feel empty, but when those lines are too stark, it can feel a bit thin. So how do you find the balance?

Publishing loves its buckets. In children's books, there are several buckets that you need to fit into, with word count guidelines and all of that. There are buckets and tropes in adult publishing as well. Books that don't lend themselves easily to categorization can be a really difficult sell.

We've all heard people who claim that somebody took their idea and is now publishing it, or that somewhere somehow, another writer has come up with basically the same idea, sold it, and now, what does that mean for your idea?

Writing invariably is a passion for a lot of people that I work with. And they just, for whatever reason, have not been able to sort of devote themselves to it until now. And that's usually when they come to me and I plug into their process.

This one's for all the people who are still casting around for an idea. How do you create a story? What matters to you, and what matters to readers?

Stories are like people. They have a body, and a soul. The body is the plot, the actions that happen. And the soul is the character, the protagonist, the key person (or persons) bound by the circumstances of the plot and forced into decisions.