Pamela Koehne-Drube

This post was originally written for the Cover Kitchen blog and can be read in its original form here. Writing a good book blurb is one o...

If you want to build a career, there are several ways to make money as a writer. How much you can make and what path you have to take to ...

2023 has been a busy year for us already at Novlr HQ. How is it only March?? We released our latest update on March 20th, and it’s been s...

Just like a muscle, you need to exercise your creativity. Writing is a skill that develops, not just one you have, and like any skill, yo...

Writing prompts aren’t hard to come by. There are entire websites and books dedicated to just that very thing. After a while, though, the...

We’re thrilled to announce that Novlr is getting a bit of a refresh! While the update is still two weeks away, we want to give you ...

Reading and writing go hand in hand. To be a truly great writer, you must immerse yourself in the written word. It’s a deeply personal cr...

Anyone who did a creative writing class at school will remember the lesson to avoid repetition in your writing. I’m here to give you some...

Do you ever struggle to stay motivated or focused on your writing? Losing motivation is one of the biggest causes of burnout among creati...

Almost 15,000,000 words have been written in Novlr already this year, with over 1,600 novels created just last month! It’s amazing to see...

Twitter has become a popular platform for the writing community. You’ll often find authors sharing their work, engaging with their reader...

Subtext is a powerful tool in creative writing. It spans every genre, and we even use it in everyday life (passive aggression and flirtin...

Every writer has a different style and voice, and a writer’s unique voice can have a huge impact on how they determine the length of thei...

Podcasts are an excellent way for writers to stay inspired, informed, and connected. They let authors share their expertise, honed over y...

Publishing a book is an exciting journey, but it’s not just about writing a great story. It’s also about presenting it in a w...

2023 is in full swing, and we’re already off to a running start here at Novlr HQ. There are now over 118,237 novels live in Novlr, and al...

At Novlr, we’re as passionate about reading as we are about writing! We are always on the lookout for the next great book recommendation....

As writers, we often rely on our own internal muses to guide us through the creative process. But sometimes, a little external inspiratio...

Do you want to transport your readers to another world, to make them feel the emotions of your characters as if they were their own? Then...

A plot twist is a sudden, unexpected turn of events in a story that changes the plot’s direction or reveals a previously unknown fact. Th...

If you’ve ever experienced writer’s block, you know how frustrating and demoralising it can be. There are plenty of ways to b...

With NaNoWriMo over and everyone heading into the holiday season, the Novlr team has been hard at work tackling bigger projects. We’re st...

Self-editing is an essential skill for any writer to have in their tool belt. With the right tools, you can be a master of self-editing a...

If you plan to publish a book, it’s essential to get as much feedback as possible. Feedback is crucial for making sure your story is the ...

In this series, we interview published Novlr authors to learn about their work, routines, and how they use Novlr. Alice Aagaard is a Dani...

It is no great mystery that prolific readers make the best writers. And few people in the world know more about stories than librarians. ...

The ABDCE structure is a great way to outline a short story. It stands for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending. By follow...

There’s a common misconception that because traditional publishers have contacts and marketing budgets to throw behind their releases, tr...

In this series, we interview published Novlr authors to learn about their work, routines, and how they use Novlr. Heidi Stephens has spen...

Horror is one of the most enduring genres of fiction. It touches something within us – letting us explore our most primal emotions....

Despite their reputation for mindless gore, zombie books can be a lot more nuanced than you expect. Zombie and vampire fiction often shin...

To find your writer’s voice, it is important to understand what it is. Voice is an author’s style of writing, which includes choice of wo...

NaNoWriMo is a great way to kickstart your writing habit. The process of writing 50,000 words in a month gives you the momentum and motiv...

Each year, in the last week of September, the world observes Banned Books Week. Started in 1982 in response to an increase in challenges ...

One of the most important elements to consider when writing is narrative voice. Narrative voice is the way in which you tell your story a...

The New York Times Bestseller list is the most famous list of bestselling books in the United States. It has been published weekly in The...

There’s something special about a Cozy Mystery. They’re great escapism, and without the gore and violence so often associated with “hardb...

Have you ever wondered why some books have a preface and others don’t? Or what the difference is between an introduction and a fore...

The best way to be a writer is to write. But we all need inspiration from somewhere, and sometimes, the ideas just don’t flow. You can us...

You’ve finished your manuscript, and you’re ready to pitch your novel to an agent. But how do you ensure your query letter wi...

You’re going to be putting a lot of time and effort into your book, so it’s important that it’s as good as it can be. With all the differ...

The setting of your story is an integral part of the impact your book will have on readers. If I’m reading a book and the author de...

You can’t get people to buy your book if they don’t know about it. It is up to you to make sure that your book gets seen by a...

If the 24 Hour Novel challenge taught me anything, it’s the importance of writing playlists to boost your imagination. The right tr...

Your setting is fundamental to your story. It’s the backbone of your plot and is essential to providing narrative context, establishing t...

NetGalley is a platform aimed at the distribution of digital galleys, otherwise known as ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) or Proofs. It’...

Today’s readers are more discerning than ever. They don’t want to see cookie-cutter villains who do evil for evil’s sake. They want to se...

Writing is a skill that takes practice, but there is more to being a great writer than simply putting words on a page. Reading is an esse...

As some of you may have followed on Twitter, in the last week of June I participated in the 24 Hour Novel challenge. Writers from all ove...

Writing is tough. You’re putting your work out there for everyone to judge, and sometimes that’s hard to do. You’ll get...

Over the last few months, we’ve been busy developing the new Novlr Analytics dashboard. We wanted to show you some of the key featu...

Dialogue tags can make or break a reader’s immersion in your dialogue. Great use of dialogue tags can result in clear, engaging, and memo...

Writers know that characters are one of the most important things for a story to be successful. But without fully developed, believable c...

No matter what type of fantasy world you’re writing, it’s easy for your plot to feel one-note if you don’t practice wor...

How do you find out if a literary agent is right for you? If you’re not sure, you’re in good company. There’s no one-si...

In this series, we interview published Novlr authors to learn about their work, routines, and how they use Novlr. D.A. (Dana) W...

Writers often use comments to single out sections of our work. This could be to add a note, to mark a section we are unsure about, or jus...

A story resolution is one of the most important elements of your plot because it will leave the most impression on your reader. It resolv...

A subplot is a secondary plotline in your story. To write a good subplot, you should support and enhance the main story arc, adding depth...

There’s nothing quite like the perfect playlist to get you in the mood to write. We’ve put together six more mood, scene, and...

There’s a popular assumption that because they are often short and simple, that writing children’s books is easy. But nothing could...

There are no hard and fast rules for how long your book or story must be, but there are recommended word counts that can help you reach s...

In this series, we interview published Novlr authors to learn about their work, routines, and how they use Novlr. Shameka Erby ...

There are many reasons why authors join a writing community. Whether it’s for the support of a like-minded group, writing sprints, fun an...

ISBNs sound like a scary hoop that authors have to jump through, so let’s take a moment to unravel the mystery and give you a bit more cl...

The perfect mixture of romance and humour, romantic comedies are the ideal escapist genre. They remind us of the fun and drama of being i...

Last week I attended the London Book Fair. It was a fantastic experience where I got to mingle with other writers, meet publishers, and h...

As our community-ownership journey continues, we want Novlr to evolve with it. We want to provide writers services for our authors as we ...

If you’re planning to publish a novel, then there is no greater resource than the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook. Every year,...

Ghostwriting is a central part of the publishing industry yet rarely discussed. Despite being involved in almost every aspect of the writ...

Putting yourself out there as a writer is hard. Successful publication is as much about marketing yourself and your work as it is about t...

If you love music, you’ll love these playlists! We’ve added 6 more amazing playlists to our already growing collection. From s...

The dream of many writers is to make it a full-time profession. For full-time writers, it’s easy to build and plan your day around ...

In this series, we interview published Novlr authors to learn about their work, routines, and how they use Novlr. Carl Burkitt likes tell...

Have you ever read back something you’ve written and felt like it’s not quite as strong as you’d like? We all have crutch words that we o...

Looking for something new to read this year? Black History Month isn’t the only time to amplify Black voices, so we’ve put together...

It’s so easy to delete your words. Don’t like what you’ve written? A blank slate is just the touch of a button away. In the moment it can...

For writers who plot, the blank page before you start outlining your story is perhaps the most daunting of all. No matter how good the co...

If you’ve got an idea for a story, but are stuck on how to bring your characters to life, then there’s an easy formula to give you a head...

It’s no secret that music and writing often go hand in hand. We’ve added 6 more amazing playlists for writing to Spotify that...

Outlining a novel can be the hardest part of any writing journey, so having the right tool for the job is absolutely essential. The more ...

While there are many paths you can take to get your novel out into the world, there are three main routes to publishing. Traditional publ...

As the subject of countless films, plays, and adaptations, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is perhaps the most long-lived Christ...

People write for a number of reasons, all of which are personal. Whether you’re a writer writing for your own pleasure, or someone lookin...

Music has inspired people for generations. It helps guide our emotions, can change our moods, and even act as catharsis in times of emoti...

With the cold winter fully set in, Michael Bublé emerging from hibernation, and Chris Rea beginning his annual drive home, we know the co...

In this new series, we will be interviewing published Novlr authors to learn about their work, their routines, and how they use Novlr. Da...

There are no hard and fast rules on when is the best time to write. For many, creativity doesn’t strike at set times, so writing any time...

Are you the kind of writer who is already hard at work as the sun comes up? Do you do your best writing in the morning, where your produc...

If you’re a writer who does most of their writing in the evening, you’re a rare breed. Evening writers belong in that twilight zone betwe...

NaNoWriMo is a great initiative. It forces us, once a year, to sit down and finally work on that book we’ve had in our heads, dying to ge...

Halloween is about all things spooky, but sometimes, especially when we’re young, things can start to feel a little overwhelming. No matt...

October is one of my favourite times of the year to read. There’s something about the change of season and the shared themes that just ge...

Back when Novlr was in its infancy, I was a brand-new freelancer trying to work out what to do with my life. As a professional historian,...