Clay Stafford’s
SUCCESS POINTS
Ideas for writers who want to build work that matters—and a writing life that lasts.
Success Points Highlights
Show, Don’t Tell: Use Sensory Details to Immerse Readers in Your Story
By nature, we see what happens in a story and hear some of it in the dialogue. But every reader also wants to feel the story in the emotions, to also hear the footsteps in the attic above in the empty house, to smell the oncoming rain in the ozone, then smell the...
Write a Strong Synopsis: Practice Writing Effective Summaries of Your Work for Agents and Publishers
A synopsis is often misunderstood as a summary of a story. That’s not its purpose. Its point is to prove to someone else (agent, editor, publisher, bookseller, reader) that you understand story, not specifically the story, but how to build a story. It’s a preview...
Reading to Write: Why Great Writers Are Always Great Readers & How to Be Both
Writers tickle our senses and imaginations across space and sometimes time. This is how writing and reading work. For most, it’s a sensory and passive experience. For writers who are reading, it should be more. Every page we turn—good writing, bad writing—can teach us...
Use Writing Prompts to Reignite Creativity
Every writer, regardless of their experience, occasionally looks at a blank screen and the words just don’t come. I used to think writing prompts were a silly waste of time. I’ve since learned differently. Anything that can get you typing and your brain cells firing...
Discipline: Commit to Writing Consistently, Even When You Don’t Feel Inspired
Discipline is the quiet, unglamorous engine beneath the hood of every writer’s life. Inspiration is always fun and welcome, but it’s like lightning: you can’t get it to strike on schedule or make it hit you. A career writer can’t expect to build a solid body of work...
Understand Copyright Laws
Writers have many misconceptions about copyright and copyright law. Whole college courses have been designed just on this subject. What I’d like to do is distill the most common aspects of copyright law here, so at least you have a working knowledge of the...
Know Your Audience
Almost everyone who writes something and sees it published wants someone to read it. For example, I would like you to read this blog. Everything we write that we share exists in a relationship: you and the reader. A writer who does not have an audience or does not...
‘Why’ You Write Is ‘Why’ They’ll Keep Reading
In this essay, I want us to reconnect with our core intents. Every writer hits that moment: the plot stalls, the characters go quiet, the pages stop piling up. And, if you’re honest, pantser or plotter, it’s not just the book that is stuck. You’re stuck! How could...
Why I Rewrote My First Chapter Six Times
I’m going to take you behind the scenes with this essay. This morning, I rewrote the opening of my new book—again, for the sixth time. I think I’m getting close. I don’t usually count my rewrites, but this one is different. The first chapter has been a thorn in my...
Crafting Strong Protagonists That Hook Readers Instantly
If your story feels like it is stalling right from the first page, your problem might not be your plot. Before you rush off to rewrite the progression of the first chapter or maybe insert one of those unnecessary prologues, take a moment and look at your protagonist’s...
Deadline-Driven Drama: How Time Pressure Shapes Story Stakes
I’ve written plenty of scenes that felt technically perfect. I’m not patting myself on the back, but they had good pacing, good dialogue, perfect structure, and everything progressed and developed as it should. And the scene still didn’t work. I used to try to fix...
The Anatomy of a Perfect Title: What Every Writer Should Know
Have you ever stared at the top of a blank page, not looking at the story but looking at the title, and felt like a complete idiot because you can’t put a name to the thing that it took you 120,000 words to write? You’re not alone. In my consulting work, titles stop...