| Writing Forward

Storytelling Exercise: Managing Our Ideas

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 is designed to help you manage your writing ideas (or lack thereof). It’s called “Managing Our Ideas.” Enjoy! All the storytelling skills in the world…Read More

How to Develop Your Best Novel Writing Ideas

Writing a novel is no small task. In fact, it’s a momentous task. Some writers spend years eking out a first draft, followed by years of revisions. And that’s before they even think about the grueling publishing process. In other words, you’re going to spend a lot of time with your novel. So you better…Read More

Breaking Grammar Rules in Poetry Writing

Accomplished writers respect the rules of grammar the way an acrobat respects the tightrope — grammar might be intimidating and complicated, but we need it in order to perform. Yet sometimes, an acrobat takes her foot off the tightrope. She does a flip or some other trick of physical prowess that seems to defy the…Read More

Punctuation Marks: Ellipsis

You see it everywhere, but most people don’t know what it’s called or how to use it properly. In fact, it’s often referred to as “dot, dot, dot” even though it does have a name. This punctuation mark is the ellipsis. It is a series or row of three periods, which is usually used to indicate…Read More

How to Engage Readers with Emotional Writing

One of the greatest skills that a writer can possess is the ability to make readers feel something. If you can engage readers on an emotional level, you’ll have them hooked. This effect is called emotional resonance. Think about it: Most of the books, poems, movies, and TV shows that you love best are the…Read More

How to Develop Better Writing Habits

There’s only one way to become a better writer, and that is through lots of practice. Some people are born with talent. Writing comes easily to them, but even the most talented writers have to work at the craft. After all, nobody’s born knowing how to write. Fostering good writing habits accomplishes two things. First,…Read More

Writing Tips: Abolish the Adverbs

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” ~ Stephen King In the writing world, adverbs have a bad reputation for being weak and causing unnecessary clutter. But sometimes adverbs are necessary, and other times, they liven up a sentence or strengthen a description. Today we’re going to explore adverbs and take a look at…Read More

Writing Resources: The Practice of Poetry

This post contains affiliate links that earn commissions from qualifying purchases. When it comes to writing resources, there are some special books out there that will help make you a better reader and a more well-rounded writer. Some academics argue that poetry is an intellectual pursuit, but that’s only partially true. Poetry is also artistic…Read More

A Week’s Worth of Experimental Journal Prompts

As writers, we are constantly told (usually by other writers) that we should be writing every day (without exception!), but rarely are we provided with details of what we should be writing. Of course, many writers already know what to write. They are poets, short story writers, novelists, memoirists, literary journalists, and bloggers. Their niche…Read More

Storytelling Exercise: Time Lapse

Today’s post is an excerpt from my book, Story Drills: Fiction Writing Exercises. This is from a chapter called “Time Lapse,” which looks at how a story moves through time in a way that isn’t jarring to the reader. Enjoy! Stories don’t take readers through every minute of the characters’ lives. Scenes jump around in…Read More