Show, Don’t Tell
Show, don’t tell—the mantra of every screenwriting teacher. Film is a visual medium in which behavior reveals character. Novelists and memoirists have […]
Story Structure
Story structure is often taught by story analysts as plot, but it is really the DNA of our protagonist’s internal journey to […]
The Courage to be Specific in Writing
Humans are full of paradoxes. We only love to the extent that we hate. We are constantly changing our minds, constantly renegotiating […]
The Desire to Write
Whether it is conscious or not, the desire to write is connected to the desire to evolve, to untangle the lie that […]
Building a Body of Work
I remember one day over twenty years ago when I was bellyaching to a friend of mine about how nobody was buying […]
Ten Suggestions for Writing
Below are ten writing suggestions for anyone who is setting out to craft a novel, memoir, or screenplay. Some are obvious, while […]
The Protagonist’s Experience
Regardless of the medium, your reader is not interested in what your character is feeling. Seriously. In fact, if you tell your […]
No Dilemma, No Story
One thing that has been coming up a lot in my classes is the tendency for writers to “figure out” their plot. […]
Becoming a Professional Writer
The publishing industry has undergone tremendous changes over the years. “Mid-list” writers who relied on decent advances from their publishers have found […]
The Creative Process
When my son, Ray, was first learning to speak, there were so many new words each day — the syntax often fascinating […]
Sell Your Novel to the Movies
When I did a book tour for my first novel, someone asked, “Have you sold the film rights?” And when I said […]
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 […]
