Poetry Prompts for the End of the Year
The end of another year is just around the corner. It’s a busy season packed with holiday shopping, gatherings with friends and family, and preparations for the new year ahead. Maybe you don’t have time to sit and write the way you usually do. Maybe your head is spinning with all the things you have…Read More
Setting in Time
Today’s fiction writing exercise is an excerpt from my book, Story Drills: Fiction Writing Exercises, which imparts lessons and techniques on the craft of storytelling and provides practical exercises for study and practice. This exercise focuses on story’s setting and more specifically, making sure readers know when every scene in a story takes place. Enjoy!…Read More
Homophones: Compliment vs. Complement
Homophones are words that sound alike but have different meanings. Sometimes, they’re also spelled differently: compliment vs. complement. Since homophones sound the same, they are often misspelled. Sometimes they’re misspelled because the writer doesn’t know there are two different spellings. In other cases, misspelled homophones are the result of typing too fast or failing to…Read More
Are You Living the Writing Life?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines lifestyle as “a particular way of living: the way a person lives or a group of people live.” Dictionary.com defines it as “the habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic level, etc., that together constitute the mode of living of an individual or group.” A lifestyle is something you build for yourself…Read More
Should Beginning Writers Imitate the Greats?
Learning often begins with imitation or copying. As babies, we learn facial expressions and gestures by mimicking adults. Children learn to write their letters by copying them from workbooks. And can you imagine a musician learning their craft without first leaning to play other musicians’ songs? But we rarely explore the question of whether writers…Read More
Journal Prompts for Giving Thanks
Journal writing is excellent for building skills and maintaining a regular writing practice, and journal prompts can help you use your journal creatively and beneficially. Journal prompts can be used to inspire creative ideas, to keep track of important things in our lives, and for personal growth. Today’s prompts are for the practice of gratitude….Read More
An Exercise from Story Drills: Theme
Today’s fiction writing exercise is an excerpt from my book, Story Drills: Fiction Writing Exercises. This one focuses on theme, the central message and deeper meaning of a story. Enjoy! Theme is often described as the message of a story, but this description doesn’t do it justice. Theme is also the central meaning of a…Read More
Grammar Rules: Subject-Verb Agreement
The rule is simple: singular subjects take singular verbs and plural subjects take plural verbs. But sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether a subject is singular or plural. That’s why subject-verb agreement errors crop up in so many pieces of writing. Making matters worse is the fact that most people don’t know what subject-verb agreement…Read More
Keep Writing!
When life gets hectic, getting your creative writing done seems impossible. Inspiration might be knocking, but the house is so full, you’re not sure you can open the door and let it in. How can you keep writing? What if all you need is sixty seconds? We all have responsibilities to fulfill and obligations to…Read More
How to Prepare to Work with Beta Readers
Beta readers are people who read your manuscript before you polish it for publication or submission to a literary agent or publisher. Unlike editors, beta readers are unpaid volunteers who provide feedback that you can use to make improvements to your work. However, before you round up your beta readers, you should have a plan…Read More
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