This is a summary of the resources I’ve used and that I recommend to anyone who wants to get started writing themselves.

The very first steps

I started out floundering a bit before I found these foundational works on writing and story structure (I also added some later material I found that I think does a great job introducing writing).

• “Fiction Writing for Dummies“—a book introducing creative writing that gives a good platform to build upon.
• “How to Write Your First Fantasy Novel in 2025 (Full Guide)“—a great YouTube video that goes through the writing process from first idea to final editing in just a bit over 2 hours. It is generic enough to work for any writing project, not just fantasy.

Foundations

Once you have the basic understanding of novel writing, there is a lot more to learn. (There always is.) Here are a number of sites and resources I found to be especially important:

• “The Snowflake Method For Designing A Novel“, Randy Ingermanson. Develop your novel from a summary sentence to the first draft in ten increasingly detailed steps. (Also available as a book).
• “The Secrets of Story structure“, K. M. Weiland, a set of articles online. Also, available as a book.
• “Empowering Characters’ Emotions“, Margie Lawson
• “How to Write Character Arcs“, also a set of articles (by Weiland) that are also available as a book.
• “Voice“, James Scott Bell

Structure and Character

Structure and character arcs are often thought of as the external and internal story, respectively. Here are some links to more details on both:

• Character traits (positive and negative), Writers Helping Writers
• The Conflict Thesaurus, Writers Helping Writers
• “The Emotion Thesaurus“, Writers Helping Writers
• “Emotional Wound Thesaurus“, Writers Helping Writers
• “Super Structure“, James Scott Bell
• “Write Your Novel From The Middle“, James Scott Bell
• “Writing Unforgettable Characters“, James Scott Bell

Scenes

Scenes are the building blocks of a story, so you obviously need to know how to write them. Here are some resources:

• “How to Write Dazzling Dialogue“, James Scott Bell
• “Setting Thesaurus“, Writers Helping Writers
• “Writing The Perfect Scene“, an article on creating scenes. Also, a book.

Editing

Revision and self-editing isn’t just for people going the self-publishing path. It is vital for creating the best story, many times even a story at all. Knowing how to edit your book even while you plan and outline it will make your work not just better, but easier.

• “Revision & Self-Editing“, James Scott Bell

All resources

Here’s a list of all the resources the above separate articles and books come from.

• Abbie Emmons
  YouTube-videos for the beginning author on everything from world building to research to dialog.
• Advanced Fiction Writing
  Good base material on outlining and scene writing.
• Bookfox
  YouTube channel with good advice on writing covering the more advanced topics but also with great examples.
• Helping Writers Become Authors
  Articles on story structure, character arcs and much more.
• James Scott Bell
  Many books covering everything from story structure to dialog to voice.
• Jed Herne
  YouTube channel with a lot of in-depth writing advice with a tilt towards fantasy, but by no means limited to fantasy. Most advice can be used for all genres.
• Margie Lawson
  Affordable guides (and courses) on writing characters’ emotions and editing to strengthen the emotional effect.
• Writers Helping Writers
  Resources for creative writing on everything from emotional wounds to character traits to settings to conflicts and much more. Available as books, PDFs, and on their “One Stop for Writers” app.

If you want to look into even more resources I’ve discovered over the years, check out my collection of creative writing links.