CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Guide › Revise a novel
How to revise a novel so the revision ends
But five passes that were all the same pass count as one, which is why writers who have "done nine drafts" are often still on their first.
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CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Guide › Sagging middle
How to diagnose a sagging middle
By any honest count you are past halfway, the sentences still come out, and none of the chapters you wrote this month are bad.
CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Guide › Point of view and psychic distance
Point of view: psychic distance is a dial
Should I remove all filter words like "she saw" and "she felt"? No: count them before you cut them.
CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Guide › First pages
First pages: what makes an agent stop reading
Tension Cal counted the till twice, because the second count was the one he would have to say out loud to his brother. One small act, no danger at all, and already there is a shortfall, a brother, and a conversation coming that…
CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Guide › Best writing apps
Best Writing Apps for Novelists in 2026
That might be finding the scene you need, keeping a complicated cast consistent, writing on more than one device or delivering the files your editor expects.
CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Daily › Archive
Creative Writing Prompts & Exercises Archive
These short fiction writing exercises practise character development, dialogue, plot and more. Every exercise has a permanent page with Muse's hint and helpful craft reading.
CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Guide › Dialogue and subtext
How to fix on-the-nose dialogue
The problem is not accuracy: it is that a line whose meaning is fully contained in its words leaves the reader with nothing to work out, and working things out is most of what reading fiction consists of.
CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Guide › Create a story bible
The story bible you'll actually use
The same thing happened at the far end of the scale: the continuity apparatus behind The Wheel of Time (eventually four million words of notes and a published companion volume)
CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Guide › Ai without losing authorship
Using AI for Fiction Without Losing Authorship
That is the arrangement I would want, but do not take my word for the boundary of a tool you are trusting with a novel. Watch the network traffic, or ask a direct question and accept nothing but a direct answer.
CMwww.chaptermuse.com › Guide › How to write a fantasy novel
How to Write a Fantasy Novel
Or you have the opposite draft: forty thousand words in, and the book keeps stopping to explain itself. A character walks into a tavern and the tavern comes with a history of the guild that licenses taverns.
