Week 37: Our bright, bittersweet fall

It is week thirty-seven of 2026. How’s the writing going? We’re on the precipice of fall here in the northern hemisphere, preparing to slide down the bright blur of beautiful weeks remaining in 2026. There are fifteen of them left—still time to accomplish so much before the end of the year if you can give them your full mind, body, and heart. Fall is a bittersweet reminder that winter is coming, and we can’t let our creative projects lie fallow for too long. If you want more inspiration (and a lot of cursing) you can read my 2019 piece that began as a review of David Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish but wound up being an ode to fall.

Here at the garret, I’ve had part of my brain in spring, working on a cozy mystery set in a small town north of Toronto full of tulips and apple blossoms—and murder suspects. I’ve got my eye on one in particular, but I’ve got lots to choose from, which is part of the fun. This week I also got to weigh in on the opening of a sci-fi novel that the author knew wasn’t quite working yet. I loved the puzzle of taking apart the elements—the hook, the story questions, the sources of tension, the worldbuilding and backstory—and then rearranging and rebuilding them so they can all work together effectively to pull readers into the novel.

Want to nerd out about plot and other story elements with me and a group of fiction editors and writers? Join me on Thursday, September 24 at Linda Ruggeri’s Networking Studio for a Power Q&A.

If you’ve been wanting to build a bigger community of fellow story nerds, The Networking Studio is a great place to check out, and you can come to this session for free. I’ve already gotten two thought-provoking questions from the group to answer, so I expect the discussion to be top notch.

I loved the conversation this week between my two clients Annmarie Boyle and Cynthia Morris on Annmarie’s podcast, I Used to Be Fun. Listen for Cynthia’s description of an adventure résumé, which really resonated with me and, I think, will also resonate for any of you who have had a winding or non-traditional career path. Their conversation might also be helpful for those of you wading through a long revision. Cynthia is honest about how hard it is and also how rewarding to get to the other side!

Scroll down for another behind-the-scenes peek at Bestsellers: Excavating the Tools and Techniques of Successful Novels, plus another new feature: Craft Advice! This week I’ve got some practical tips about character names that will make all of the copyeditors nod their heads in recognition.

One of the techniques I developed in Novel Study Book 1 is intensity tracking: ranking the external and internal intensity of every scene or chapter of a novel and then graphing it to see where the high-intensity spikes and lower-intensity moments are located. I continued that practice in Novel Study Book 2 and have also started using the technique in my developmental editing work (in my full-scale content edits only, because it is time intensive!). The graph shows you the pulse of the novel, which is something the reader feels—quite viscerally, I think. Using this tool during revision can help writers step back from their story and focus on how the reader experiences it.

The graph for S.A. Cosby’s King of Ashes is typical for a high-intensity thriller.

Cosby draws readers in with two high-intensity spikes in Act 1, then lowers the external temperature through Act 2 to focus on internal character development. Act 2 ends with another spike of violence. Act 3 delivers periodic spikes of external intensity before pausing once more to let internal intensity carry the momentum, building tension as we approach the climactic finale. Lowering the temperature in Act 2 is a classic move in action-focused genres: Readers are now hooked, and as a writer you can turn your attention backwards and inwards for a period.

However, this is just one pattern and it’s not right for every book, especially one with a deliberately slow start. In Bestsellers, I cover a number of different patterns and the custom endpapers for the special-edition hardcover show a collection of intensity graphs grouped together, so you can easily compare different shapes and consider what might work for your own story.

Click over to Kickstarter and follow the launch so you can see the endpapers and lots more of the graphs and charts once it goes live! The project launches on September 22 and I’ll send one extra email on launch day—after that you’ll hear from me again two weeks from today, on September 27.

As an editor, I’ve seen character names trip up writers in many different ways. Let’s work through some categories of problems so you know what to look for in your own manuscripts.

(1) Are the names distinct enough that readers won’t be confused?

Sometimes writers unconsciously get stuck on either a letter or a sound and end up with a cluster of characters whose names echo one another. I always take notice if I am getting confused, and I also do a scan of the character list on the style sheet before returning an edit. Look for names that start with the same letter and make sure the rest of the name is distinct enough to avoid confusion. For example, having a Jake and a Jack in the same novel is a bad idea, even if they never interact. To check for sounds, read the names aloud to make sure you don’t have a Dan–Stan–Ann cluster, for example. Repeat this check with last names if your characters are often referred to by last name rather than first name.

(2) Are the names right for the setting?

Think about the place and time of each character’s birth, as well as anything you’ve decided about the character’s parents. Which names were popular in this time and place, and which were unusual? Would the character’s parents have gravitated toward a common name or an uncommon one? For the US, the popular baby names by decade database is a helpful source.

If your novel has a big cast of characters, have you included names that mirror the diversity of the community you are writing about? Newspapers are another fantastic source for names. Find an online newspaper from your setting, or a place similar to your setting, and read through a selection of articles from different sections—arts and community events and human interest stories, in addition to news stories. (If you hit a paywall, remember that your local library will likely be able to give you free access.)

If you are writing about characters associated with a place you are less familiar with, it’s also worth doing a search on the last names you have chosen so you don’t accidentally choose a name associated with a well-known figure.

(3) Are there any names ending in S?

This is the one where my fellow copyeditors will shake their heads knowingly. Chicago Manual of Style and New Hart’s Rules, the style guides followed by US and UK publishers, both call for using an apostrophe S after a name ending in S. This differs from the Associated Press style guide, used by most US newspapers and magazines, which calls for an apostrophe only. Authors are sometimes surprised during copyediting to discover that their manuscript is full of names ending in S, which now have an apostrophe S appended to them. Even worse is a family name like Perkins, which requires an additional -es to become plural and then takes another apostrophe for possessive.

Here’s a sentence that will appall your audiobook narrator and make your copyeditor pull out her red pen:

James’s drone caught Venus’s cat napping on the Perkinses’ porch swing.

If you must include a character whose name ends with S, you can often sidestep the apostrophe S altogether by writing around it:

James flew his drone over the fence and caught a cat, who belonged to his next-door neighbor Venus, sleeping on the Perkins family’s porch swing.

If you decide to change a name, do a global find-and-replace in Word with utmost caution! In the find-and-replace dialogue box, be sure to select the options to “Find whole words only” and “Match case” so you don’t, for example, switch from Tim to Joe and end up with a sentence like this one:

By the Joee the Joeid vicJoe spoke up, everyone had lost their opJoeism.

Finally, make sure you or your editor or proofreader do a final search for any misspelled names, as these are especially painful typos when they sneak into a finished book. I run Paul Beverley’s ProperNounAlyse macro in Word to catch them. (See Jennifer Yankopolus’s Macro of the Month site to get up to speed on Word macros.) Doing a final read-aloud proof of your book (using Word’s Read Aloud tool or something similar) will also help you catch them. If you are open to using AI tools, they are very good at catching errors like these, especially if you do a dedicated pass solely to look for them.

Have any burning craft or editing questions? I’ve got a Blue Garret Q&A column coming up: You can ask your questions on this form, or simply reply to or comment on this newsletter.

A few favorite things about the book

⭐️ Kevin creates a powerful three-word formula—resistance + resilience = reinvention—from his own experiences, which he discusses honestly
⭐️ The punk rock theme! I love a book with a playlist, and this is one where the music, theme, and lessons all work together seamlessly
⭐️ From the colophon to the mix-tape graphics to the collages, the book is a beautifully designed package that feels fresh and fun (not many self-help books can claim that!)

Congrats, Kevin! Find Your Inner Rebel is out now. Learn more at innerrebelbook.com or buy it on Amazon.

A few favorite things about the book

⭐️ The juicy peek behind the scenes of a reality dating show—if you watch The Bachelorette, you’ll enjoy this novel
⭐️ It’s a true rom-com and will make you literally LOL
⭐️ Rich themes about the price and opportunities of social media and fame

Congrats, Alyssa! Learn more and buy Love Like No One’s Watching on Amazon.

I love speaking to writers and editors—check out my Speaking page and get in touch if you are interested in having me speak to your group.

I’ve featured Elle Cordova’s clever videos in previous newsletters, but this one might be her best yet—a confrontation between Rough Draft and Final Draft (or is it…?). The cutaway to Brainstorm is maybe my favorite moment. Bluesky | YouTube

Stay well, y’all, and keep fighting the good fights.

Kristen