The Draft

All the kinds of conflict that can drive your story

Tips and techniques for driving conflict from story theory and psychology.

Oct 27 • Tarryn

4

Feedback is a gift

Designing the tracking changes feature for First Draft Pro.

Oct 20 • Tarryn

1

The centre of my universe is (more than just) a text editor

Designing manuscript & writing features for First Draft Pro.

Oct 6 • Tarryn

2

September 2026

Six playlists for writing based on scene mood (no lyrics)

Get into the right headspace for romance, action, hopeful, upbeat, tense, or sad scenes.

Sep 29 • Tarryn

4

A map (ie: outline) is only helpful if you can actually see it

Designing the manuscript scene outline feature for First Draft Pro.

Sep 22 • Tarryn

6

Writing is hard, but we can do hard things

Designing motivation and goal tracking features for First Draft Pro.

Sep 8 • Tarryn

1

How I refocus when I hit a writing slump

Turns out writing a novel is hard, who knew!

Sep 1 • Tarryn

7

August 2026

Map-making resources for fiction writers

How to choose a map-making tool, and a list of options based on what you're looking for!

Aug 25 • Tarryn

6

Outlining and planning is also writing

Designing plotting and outlining features for First Draft Pro.

Aug 18 • Tarryn

5

1

Writing for the ‘id’: notes on writing bestselling fiction using psychological theory

Why humans love stories, why particular stories catch fire, and how you can draw on this to increase your odds of writing a bestseller/fan-favourite.

Aug 11 • Tarryn

8

2

Books are the loving work of many hands

Designing collaboration features for First Draft Pro.

Aug 4 • Tarryn

11

1

6

April 2026

Can we use character motivation to define a character arc?

Connecting the five Fs of character motivation to character transformation.

Apr 21 • Tarryn

17

2

1