Magical Mystery Coach

Let's make your fantasy unputdownable ! Writing fantasy and want to create a well-structured and exciting plot? Many fantasy writers spend years building their worlds, making sure every detail works. But what they often neglect—and what readers truly want—is tension. Readers want to be immersed in your book, unable to put it down. They want to stay up until 3 a.m. and forget everything else. Let's face it, when a reader puts down a book, they often never pick it up again. If your beta reader never finishes your book, or if your published book isn't doing as well as it should despite your amazing worldbuilding and beautiful language, chances are it lacks tension. Tension and plotting are my superpowers. I help writers create the unputdownable books they dream of. I'm Ina Nes, your book coach, passionate about fantasy and crime.     Ready to Get Started? Email me at inaingeborgnes@gmail.com to receive my Writer’s Intake Q&A, where you can tell me more about you...

  In Praise of Smaller Mysteries As a reader, I love subplot mysteries even more than main mysteries in the classical whodunnits. They’re so versatile, fun, and has so many cool uses! Why use a subplot mystery? There are five main reasons: 1: You have several ways to keep the reader engaged. You don’t put all eggs in the same basket when it comes to delighting your reader. While a main ...

Viewing genre techniques as a toolbox helps you to surpass reader expectations and increase your chances of success. This is why.  Many of the most successful fantasy authors today – Brandon Sanderson, J. K. Rowling, Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros, among others – include mystery and thriller techniques such as narrative misdirection, plot twists, heists, and dramatic irony in their plots, to heighten tension and make their stories unputdownable. While commercial genre is about marketing your book to the right reader and content genre is about structuring your main storyline to fulfill your reader's expectations, seeing genre techniques as a toolbox helps you exceed these expecations.  Everyone expects a plot twist at the end of a mystery novel, because that's part of the genre and the payoff to the question that drives the narrative—often who, why and how a murder was committed. But a plot twist can appear seemingly out of the blue in a story with a different narrative d...

Literature isn’t the twin of addiction, it’s the twin of emotional resilience, the reminder we need, again and again, of who we can be.  As a society, we do a mistake when we equal bleakness with depth, and joy with silliness and superficiality.  Even writers and readers of cozies, romances and wish fulfillment do themselves a disservice by denying their stories depth, calling it only guilty pleasure, escapism, and the like, thus marginalizing the need for comfort, pairing it with shame and guilt.  I don’t want less cozy, less pumpkin spice café romances, I want more of it, unapologetically and with purpose. As society and as story telling creatures, let's take joy seriously. And I don’t mean serious as stern in any way. I want us to accept fully the parts of us that longs for joy and connection and see them as deeply human.  We aren’t fleeing from life because we long for joy. On the contrary: we are seeking life. Enlivement, inspiration, hope and the strength to g...

For a limited time, I'm giving free webinars on plotting fantasy using techniques from the crime genre: mystery, heists, and thrillers.  Crime and Tension Techniques for Fantasy Writers How Harry Potter, Fourth Wing, Mistborn, His Dark Materials, Game of Thrones, and Other Bestsellers of Fantasy Keep Their Audiences Hooked 1: Worldbuilding Criminality 2: Origin Mysteries and Other Plot Twists 3: Heists in Fantasy   Part 1-3 can be accessed as replays.    To get free access to the replays, subscribe to my newsletter!   "This was phenomenal, Ina! I really loved it, and the examples were perfect and made all your ideas so clear. I've got a far-future idea that involves heists, and this really unlocked some things for me!"  – Jane Kalmes, YouTuber, writing instructor and mystery author   "A deep dive to simplify a complex topic! Ina breaks things down in an approachable way, helping writers worldbuild on a deeper level and craft stronger stories."...