Trust
I grew up in a very bright, academic family, but at times I felt alone. My family members were very logical, reasonable […]
Memoir: Personal & Universal
The challenge in writing a memoir is that self-examination is not typically meant to be shared. The goal in writing a dynamic […]
Weights & Measures
Proximity Do our characters have to be two thousand miles apart, or three miles apart? If we are trying to convey a […]
Simplicity
Forward, he cried From the rear And the front ranks died. Pink Floyd (Us and Them) We can tell a whole […]
Dilemma: The Source of Your Story
At the heart of every story lies a dilemma. It is not a question of whether or not your protagonist has a […]
Writing the Forbidden
“Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are so ingrained in our society we rarely stop to think about it. I can […]
Backstory
“The past is prologue.” – William Shakespeare When we are stuck, it is inevitably because some part of our backstory is unclear. […]
Choice
Why do we write? Why do we spend months, years, even decades engaged in the solitary act of creating a world on […]
The Arc of a Scene
“I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other […]
Staying Connected to the Source
“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination.” – Albert Einstein The rewrite […]
Humor in Tragedy
(Image from Life is Beautiful, 1997) If you’re going to write a tragedy, infuse your story with humor. Humor pulls us towards the […]
Conflating Characters
Sometimes we’ve written characters that don’t belong in our story because their function is redundant. Conflict might arise that don’t add anything […]
Building Sentences
“You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences.”– Anatole France There are no […]
Own Your Work
Just because you might be a first-time novelist, it doesn’t mean you’re not the authority over your work. No agent, publisher, or […]
The Great American Novel
Every American writer secretly dreams of writing the “Great American Novel.” What would that look like? It’s a book that captures the […]
Our Characters are Malleable
“Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences our lives does not consist of what happened, but of […]
Reframing Your Protagonist’s Goal
“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense […]
How to Become a First-Time Author
The journey to becoming a first-time author is different for everyone. For me, it involved letting go of the idea that I’d […]
