Writing Advice You Can Actually Use
Fiction Fundamentals
Writing isn’t magic. It’s a skill you can learn.
Clear, practical video lessons for middle-school, high-school, and developing writers who want stronger plots, more memorable characters, sharper dialogue, and stories that hold together from beginning to end.
Better Stories Begin with Better Tools
Learn the Craft One Skill at a Time
Writing can feel overwhelming when every part of a story seems to demand attention at once. Fiction Fundamentals breaks the process into manageable lessons, so you can understand what each storytelling tool does, practice it deliberately, and use it with confidence in your own work.
What You’ll Learn
Ideas & Premises
Turn a spark of inspiration into a story question with enough conflict, possibility, and momentum to sustain a complete draft.
Plot, Structure & Pacing
Build meaningful beginnings, escalating middles, satisfying endings, and scenes that move at the right speed.
Characters & Arcs
Create people with goals, fears, strengths, flaws, and believable reasons to change—or refuse to change.
Dialogue & Point of View
Write conversations that reveal character and choose a viewpoint that gives readers the right information at the right time.
Description & Worldbuilding
Make settings vivid without stopping the story, and build worlds whose details support the characters, conflict, and theme.
Revision & Editing
Diagnose weak scenes, fix inconsistencies, strengthen prose, and turn a rough draft into a story readers can follow and enjoy.
For Writers
Start Where You Are
You do not need a completed novel, a perfect outline, or years of experience. Bring the story you are working on—or the story you hope to begin—and use each lesson as one practical next step.
- Middle-school and high-school writers
- New and developing adult writers
- Writing clubs and critique groups
- NaNoWriMo participants and independent learners
For Teachers & Families
Make Writing Instruction More Concrete
Use individual videos to introduce a concept, reinforce a lesson, start a discussion, or give young writers a clear model before they revise their own work.
- English and creative-writing classrooms
- Homeschool writing instruction
- Library and community writing programs
- Parents supporting enthusiastic young storytellers
Meet Your Writing Guide
Michael D. Young
Michael D. Young is a published author, educator, and instructional designer who has spent years writing fantasy, picture books, devotionals, poetry, scripts, and interactive learning experiences. He holds a degree in teaching as well as master’s degrees in instructional design and educational leadership. Fiction Fundamentals combines the craft lessons he has learned as an author with the clear, step-by-step teaching approach he uses as an educator.
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