Welcome to Crystal Crawford's official author blog!

A brief tour of Arameth, to show you what emerged from this world and how it all came together.

Announcing my new "crash course in fiction writing" guide!

Welcome to Arameth, the world it took me 12 years to build Arameth is my fantasy universe, the place where The Lex Chronicles takes place.

If you’ve followed any of my series on Plotting, you know that I like plotting.But here’s my secret: I didn’t use to plot my stories at all.

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the final post in my “Plotting Your Story” series: Plotting Your Story, Step #7: The Perfect Ending!

Hi, everyone, and welcome to post #6 in my “Plotting Your Story” series: Plotting Your Story, Step #6: Detailed Outlines!

Hi, everyone, and welcome to post #5 in my “Plotting Your Story” series: Plotting Your Story, Step #5: Revelations!

Today’s post is the next in the Plotting Your Story series: Plotting Your Story, Step #4: Thematic Threads!

Today’s post is the next in the Plotting Your Story series: Plotting Your Story, Step #3: External Story (Plot)!

Today’s post is the next in the Plotting Your Story series: Plotting Your Story, Step #2: Internal Story (Characters)!

Today’s post is the first in the Plotting Your Story series: Plotting Your Story, Step #1: Premise!

Hi, everyone, and welcome to my blog post series… Plotting Your Story: How to Craft a Complex, Compelling Story Plot!

A collection of inspirational writing quotes

A question I'm asked repeatedly: What about “Show, Don’t Tell”? How do I do it? What are the rules?

I often receive comments on how I’ve managed to build an online community around my writing. Here's a step-by-step of how I did that...

Don’t have fancier software, but have Microsoft Word? Learn how to make the most of it for your writing process.

What to do when it suddenly feels like writing sucks and you wonder why you ever decided to do this in the first place.

A good self-edit can make a huge difference in your writing, but only if you know how to do it well. Here are 7 tips to help you self-edit..

A quick bullet-point list of tips for choosing a title and writing a blurb--these are essentially the notes from a live Writers Chat I did..

Vibrant, memorable characters are the heart of storytelling and the window through which you are able to access your readers’ emotions.