The Writer's Compass

How do you tell the story you want to tell and capture your audience's heart? Regardless of genre or format, to tell your story effectively you must first sort through all the ideas you've been toying with—organize them, whip them into shape, and turn them into great writing.

The Writer's Compass is here to show you the way. This guide to better writing teaches you to visualize your story's progress by creating a story map that helps you see all the different components of your story, where these components are going, and, perhaps most importantly, what's missing.

You'll learn to:

• develop your ideas into a finished story by working through your writing in 7 thoughtful stages
• evaluate and improve your work by mapping out your story's progress and structure
• assess your story's strengths and weaknesses so you can write the story you want to tell

Whether you're writing a novel, a short story, a play, or a screenplay, the 7 stage approach of The Writers Compass allows you to focus on one aspect of your story at a time—including forming and developing ideas, building strong structures, creating vibrant characters, and structuring scenes and transitions.

The path of a writer isn't always easy. Let The Writer's Compass be your north star by simplifying a wealth of writing advice into easily applicable concepts that will help you improve your craft.

About the author
Nancy Ellen Dodd is a writer, university instructor, and an editor with two master's degrees in writing from the University of Southern California. She currently teaches screenwriting at Pepperdine University and has studied with a number of award winning authors.

Read an interview with author Nancy Dodd!

Read an Excerpt

Bonus! Map your story structure with the bonus download Story Map Worksheet based on Nancy Ellen Dodd's The Writer's Compass. Includes space for your notes about: your protagonist's goal, external & internal conflict, what's at stake, obstacles, and more When used with The Writer's Compass, this tool can help you organize your ideas and plan your story.