Discover how to navigate AI writing with confidence and integrity. Learn the ethics, best practices, tools, and strategies to establish your own AI-driven writing process while staying true to your creative vision.
The StoryBold Library
for writers
Your knowledge hub for mastering story craft, staying ahead of publishing industry trends, and getting your story into the hands of readers. Each article offers writing strategies and advice you can consume in just a few minutes and apply to your projects to see results.
Book Ideas That Choose You: A True Story of Creative Timing, Resistance, and Saying Yes
May 06, 2025
Some book ideas choose you, even when the timing feels all wrong. Learn what happens when you resist, explore, and ultimately say yes.
By Julie Tyler Ruiz
CONTENTS:
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How a book idea found me
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Seeing the story through someone else’s eyes
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From resistance to clarity
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Owning the story as mine
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Saying yes to the idea I didn’t ask for
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Writing the story while living it
How a book idea found me
Writers love talking about book ideas. There are so many methods to summon them, like journaling, using writing prompts, or simply observing your surroundings. In these instances, when inspiration comes from within, it's easy to take ownership of the ideas and feel connected to them from the start.
But what do you do with the book ideas that find you? The ideas that come to you from someone else's mouth instead of your own mind? The ideas you can't claim as your own, but somehow seem destined for your ears and your writing desk? What do you do when the ideas seem to c...
AI Writing in 2025: Your Complete Guide to Staying Creative, Authentic, & Informed
Mar 31, 2025
By Julie Tyler Ruiz
CONTENT
- Introduction. Navigating the AI writing landscape in 2025
- Chapter 1. What is AI writing?
- Chapter 2. Ethics of AI writing
- Chapter 3. Using AI to write: what you gain and lose
- Chapter 4. AI prompt writing: best practices
- Chapter 5. AI writing tools
- Chapter 6. AI writing events
- Chapter 7. AI in book publishing: industry news and trends
- Chapter 8. How I use AI to write: my dos and don'ts
- Chapter 9. How to establish your own AI writing practice
Introduction. Navigating the AI writing landscape in 2025
By 2025, most of us are using generative AI for a variety of writing tasks or at least experimenting with AI to see what it can do, from automating content or generating pages of material in a matte...
What is Conflict in a Story? Definition, Types, & How to Create Conflict
Nov 13, 2024
Discover the role of conflict in a story, different types of story conflict, and the steps to creating meaningful conflict in your story.
By Julie Tyler Ruiz
CONTENTS:
- What is conflict in a story?
- Types of story conflict
- The purpose of story conflict
- Story conflict examples
- How to create conflict in your story: 6 steps
What is conflict in a story?
Story conflict is the central problem, challenge, or dilemma that the main character must confront to reach their goal. It’s the force that drives the character’s journey and keeps readers engaged. Conflict creates obstacles, stakes, and tension as the character navigates difficult situations that stand in the way of their desires.
Often, the conflict and the character’s goal are intertwined. For example, imagine a commoner and a prince in love, hoping to marry, only to be blocked by a disapproving royal family. The story unfolds as they strive to convince the royals to bless their union—or consider leaving royal life behind in...
8 Advanced Strategies for Developing Your Writing Style
Oct 09, 2024
Practice eight advanced strategies for developing a stand-out writing style readers crave.
By Julie Tyler Ruiz
CONTENTS:
- Overview
- 8 advanced writing style strategies
- Final writing style thoughts
Overview
How to Improve Your Writing Style: 6 Easy Tips to See Fast Results
Oct 06, 2024
Discover easy steps you can take to transform your writing in minutes.
By Julie Tyler Ruiz
CONTENTS:
- Writing style overview
- 6 easy writing style tips
- Final writing style considerations
Writing style overview
What is writing style? Writing style refers to the unique way you express yourself in words. It includes sentence structure, tone, and word choice, as well as how these elements relate to the overall message and meaning of a piece of writing.
No matter your genre—fiction, blogging, content marketing, or creative nonfiction—improving your writing style makes your work more engaging. It helps you communicate ideas with your readers more effectively.
Below, you'll find 6 quick tips you can apply to a short writing sample to see instant results.
6 easy writing tips
Grab a short sample of your writing, something that matters to you, in any genre. Then, use these tips to refine the sample quickly and see improvements right away. This is your chance to make a meaningful d...
14 Creative Writing Styles to Explore in Your Next Project (with Examples + Exercises)
Sep 25, 2024
Explore 14 diverse styles of creative writing and experiment with different techniques to develop your own style.
By Julie Tyler Ruiz
CONTENTS:
- What is style in creative writing?
- Why do you need a writing style?
- 14 creative writing styles
- 5 writing style exercises
What is style in creative writing?
Style in creative writing refers to the distinct way a writer uses language to express ideas, create atmosphere, and shape the reader’s experience. It encompasses the choices you make at the sentence level, including word choice, syntax, rhythm, and tone, to achieve a particular effect and set your work apart.
Beyond these smaller components, creative writing style can include broader elements like narrative voice, pacing, and structure, all of which reflect the themes, characters, and emotions of your story.
Let's consider some examples:
- You might tell a story about a lonely, isolated widow using a somber, melancholy style, with sparse, understated language and long, ref ...
Creative Writing Courses for Beginners, Novelists, Poets, and More
Sep 20, 2024
Explore the vast array of top-rated creative writing courses on different genres and topics, available online and open to the public (no application).
By Julie Tyler Ruiz
CONTENTS:
- What is a creative writing course?
- 18 creative writing courses
- How to choose the right course for you
- FAQ
What is a creative writing course?
A creative writing course is an educational program that helps creative writers master their craft and complete writing projects. As a creative writer, you'll find many valuable courses that cover all facets of writing, from getting started and learning specific techniques, to getting published and promoting your work.
However, not all courses for writers are creative writing courses.
In a true creative writing course, you'll find a heavy emphasis on craft, the specific techniques involved in creative writing, such as developing fictional characters, structuring a plot, or refining your style. Most creative writing courses will teach craft through a se...
How to Write a Novel: 6 Key Steps + Why They Work
Jun 29, 2024
Discover the truth about writing a novel in 2024, the most effective strategies for developing a solid first draft, and tips for novel writing success.
By Julie Tyler Ruiz
Novel writing process: what you should know in 2024
Writing a novel offers many rewards. By going through the process, you build important writing skills and see yourself in a new light, as someone with the vision and stamina to complete a large project. When you reach the end of the process, you get to see your work in print and offer readers an engaging reading experience.
Now that you're at the outset of your novel project, you have the opportunity to take ownership of the entire process, every word, every sentence, and write from your heart and soul. This endeavor is especially important in the age of AI, a watershed moment for all content creators, when tools like ChatGPT and Copilot can generate pages of text on command. As a storyteller, your job is to create what AI cannot, an original novel inspired b...
How to Write Creatively: A Guide to Turning Ideas into Masterpieces
Jun 21, 2024
Discover what it means to write creatively and the best methods for actually doing it.
By Julie Tyler Ruiz
What does it mean to write creatively?
Writing creatively is the act of turning your original ideas into a written piece, a unique reading experience that will inspire your audience.
Unlike professional or academic writing, writing in a creative way means you use a special set of techniques and styles to infuse your work with emotional texture, innovative use of language, surprising forms, and aesthetic qualities.
Let's look at a comparison example:
- A legal textbook: a piece of academic writing that defines laws in a straightforward manner, describes historical cases pertaining to those laws. By studying a legal textbook, students gain an understanding of laws to uphold them in their practice.
- A legal thriller: a work of fiction that tells a story about someone wrongly accused of a crime. To write the novel, the author takes creative license to make up the events of t...
What is Creative Writing? Definition, Types, and How to Get Started
Jun 13, 2024
Discover all that creative writing has to offer and begin your journey as a creative writer.
By Julie Tyler
Creative writing definition
Creative writing refers to a broad range of texts that draw upon writers' creativity (as the term suggests), facility with words, emotional depth, and intellectual rigor to convey meaning. Creative writing is also an area of study and college major at many colleges and universities.
Creative writing is, by nature, an artistic expression, characterized by originality, invention, imagination, and inspiration. Creative writers use language as their primary medium, putting words together in new ways and using literary devices like symbolism or foreshadowing, to create original works. As we'll explore further down, creative writing encompasses fiction, poetry, nonfiction, drama, and even hybrid forms.
Exceptional pieces of creative writing are considered literature and often appear on reading lists for students of all ages, from elementary to gr...
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Author
Julie Tyler Ruiz
Creator of StoryBold