23 Fiction Writing Ideas That Will Revitalize Your Story
Sometimes our fiction writing projects dry up. The characters turn out flat, the plot feels formulaic, and the story suddenly seems lackluster. This is when a lot of writers give up and file their half-finished manuscripts into a bottom drawer never to be seen again. What a waste of time and energy. Before giving up…Read More
What Makes a Good Poem?
In the world of art and entertainment, everything is subjective. Millions of fans loved that blockbuster film that dominated theaters last year, but maybe you found it lacking in substance. Maybe some of the great works of literature you were forced to read in school left you wondering why they were considered important enough to…Read More
Essay Writing Ideas, Topics, and Publishing Tips
Around here, we’re usually so focused on fiction, poetry, and journaling that we often forget about another form of creative writing: the essay. The first essay that captured my attention and got me interested in essay writing was Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” which was also my first introduction to satire: Written and published anonymously…Read More
10 Ways to Learn Writing Skills
For writers, the learning process never ends. There’s always some new skill to acquire, a new writing technique to develop, a new tool we can use. We strive to master basic writing skills (grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, etc.), and learn our form (fiction, nonfiction, or poetry) and genre (romance, suspense, fantasy, etc.). Storytellers, for example, must learn…Read More
Writing Tips For Staying on Your Game
Believe it or not, there are a few writing tips that we writers can steal from athletes, strategies that show us how to stay in shape and on top of our game. Athletes work hard even when they’re off the field. They spend hours practicing with their teams. They run miles around the track when…Read More
A Must-Read for Storytellers: Save the Cat
“It’s the scene where we meet the hero, and the hero does something — like saving a cat — that defines who he is and makes us, the audience, like him.” — Blake Snyder, Save the Cat Save the Cat has been on my radar for several years; it’s one of those books I kept…Read More
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
Storytelling Exercise: Character 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: the characters. It’s called “Character Analysis.” Enjoy! Character Analysis Characterization may be the single most…Read More
20 Fun and Inspiring Character Writing Ideas
Creating a realistic character is one of the most difficult challenges in writing a piece of fiction. We’ve all read stories in which the characters were dull or hollow; they come across like clones of the same characters we’ve met in dozens of stories before. Readers want characters who are as unique and complex as…Read More
What is Form Poetry?
We can classify most poetry into two groups: form poetry and free verse. Free verse is a style of poetry that doesn’t adhere to any structure; the poet is free to write lines and stanzas of varying lengths and meter, with or without rhymes. Form poetry, on the other hand, adheres to a specific structure,…Read More
