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Writing guides
Writing guides for novelists: how to self-edit, the story structures, what published novels do, and how the tools compare.
These writing guides are for the whole road of a book: drafting it, shaping it and editing it. Each one says where its advice comes from, and the numbers in them are counted, never guessed: chapter lengths from 75 published novels, a proofreading test with seven tools, story structures from the books that made them.
Start with the one for where your book is now. Still drafting? Writing sprints and the November challenge keep the words coming. Draft done? The self-editing guide takes you through five passes, big to small, and the story structures help you see the shape you wrote.
Writing guides for editing your book
- How to self-edit a novel
Five passes, big to small: structure first, typos last, and what to look for in each.
- The proofreading test
Seven tools, 240 sentences of fiction and a short story: what each one caught.
1 November 2026.
- The prose checks
Each check: what it finds, with examples, and what published novels do.
Shaping your story
- Story structures
Three acts, Save the Cat, the Hero’s Journey and more, each from its own source.
- Words per chapter
How long chapters and novels are, counted in 75 published novels.
1,887 chapters.
Writing guides for the draft
- Writing sprints
Write at the same moment as others, from a link or on Discord.
- The November challenge
50,000 words, or every day of November, with other writers.
- Writing software without AI
What’s in it, and why it uses a sliver of an AI’s energy.
More writing guides on the blog.
Check your own draft
See what it finds in your story, on your own device.
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