Storytelling Exercise: Concepts and Premises
Today’s storytelling exercise is an excerpt from my book, Story Drills: Fiction Writing Exercises, which helps beginning to intermediate storytellers develop skills in the craft of fiction writing. This exercise addresses two useful tools for developing and promoting stories: concept and premise. Enjoy! The premise of a story can be summed up in a few…Read More
Homophones: Its and It’s
Homophones confuse some people and annoy others. I often see people online complaining about other people who can’t differentiate between the spellings of homophones like your and you’re; they’re, their, and there, and of course, its and it’s. While I find these mistakes mildly annoying, I don’t know if I’d go so far as to…Read More
26 Creative Writing Careers
If creative writing is your passion, then you’d probably enjoy a career in which you could spend all day (or at least most of the day) pursuing that passion. But creative writing is an artistic pursuit, and we all know that a career in the arts isn’t easy to come by. It takes hard work,…Read More
Breaking the Rules: When Good Grammar Goes Bad
Today’s post is an excerpt from 10 Core Practices for Better Writing. Enjoy! “And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before—and thus was the Empire forged.” — Douglas Adams Everyone knows the old saying: rules were made to be broken. But some…Read More
Journal Prompts for Bookworms
A good book is a writer’s paradise. At least, it should be. A book can be an adventure. It can show us the world from a new perspective. It can be a mirror, a microscope, or a telescope. It can reflect the world, magnify it, or carry us away to far-off places. Books are extra…Read More
Storytelling Exercise: Character Choices
Today’s storytelling exercise is an excerpt from my book, Story Drills: Fiction Writing Exercises, which helps beginning to intermediate storytellers develop skills in the craft of fiction writing. This exercise explores one of the most important elements of any story: the characters. It’s called “Character Choices.” Enjoy! Character Choices We get to wherever we are…Read More
Would You Rather Have Skill or Talent as a Writer?
Is effective writing borne of skill or talent? There has always been a debate about whether artistic trades are a matter of learned skill or inherent talent. On the one hand, there is the belief that some are born with active and imaginative right brains and are therefore better able to manifest creativity. On the…Read More
How to Become a Better Writer
There’s more to writing than pushing a pen across a piece of paper, and there’s more to being a writer than having written. These days, everyone’s a writer. We write emails, text messages, and lists. A free blog is just a few clicks away. Self-publishing has drawn tens of thousands of dreamers who have scrawled…Read More
Philosophical Journal Prompts
What is philosophy? Let’s turn to Wikipedia for a simple, straightforward definition: “Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language…It is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.” Today’s journal…Read More
Storytelling Exercise: Plot Analysis
Today’s storytelling exercise is an excerpt from my book, Story Drills: Fiction Writing Exercises, which helps beginning to intermediate storytellers develop skills in the craft of fiction writing. This exercise explores one of the most important elements of any story: plot. It’s called “Plot Analysis.” Enjoy! Plot Analysis Some readers think analyzing a plot takes…Read More
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