(Image from Life is Beautiful, 1997) If you’re going to write a tragedy, infuse your story with humor. Humor pulls us towards the characters and makes us care. It also ensures that your ending will …
Writing Techniques
Building Sentences
“You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences."- Anatole France There are no rules that limit the length of a sentence, but when our sentences are …
Most popular posts
On Writing Dialogue
“If you have a good ear for dialogue, you just can’t help thinking about the way people talk. You’re drawn to it. And the obsessive interest in it forces you to develop it. You almost can’t help yourself.” –Robert Towne When you follow the labyrinth of most conversations, you’ll discover one constant: people are always …
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Humor Is Not About Writing Funny
Humor connects us. It makes us care. I don’t mean one-liners. Humor is not about jokes, but it is about human behavior. It’s a vital aspect of any story, adding depth, richness, and humanity. Drama without humor is unbearable, and comedy without drama falls flat. Shakespeare understood that in order for the audience to experience …
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Developing Your Writing Technique
Technique develops over time. By reading and writing, we absorb a sense of story structure, cadence, and rhythm. We learn how to create and release tension. We deepen our relationship to our protagonist’s dilemma, and ultimately (God willing) we grow in our understanding of human nature. By sitting with our imaginations regularly and allowing …
Read MoreThe 30-Day Outline
The 30-Day Outline is a Live-on-Zoom workshop with Alan Watt that will take you from initial idea to the completion of a solid outline in 5 weeks.
Recent Posts
How Do I Begin?
“How do I begin?” The process of story creation is mysterious. Where do your story ideas come from? From where do your characters emerge? At their core, stories are born out of an impulse to make order from chaos. Stories reveal a transformation, a new way of seeing things. For example, notice how we dream …
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Hold the Story Loosely
Our idea of the story is never the whole story. The act of writing a novel, memoir, or screenplay is a way of developing a coherent narrative for something that began as a simple idea or image. We are piecing together a series of emotional experiences that lead to a transformation. The plot, the “stuff …
Read More Humor Is Not About Writing Funny
Humor connects us. It makes us care. I don’t mean one-liners. Humor is not about jokes, but it is about human behavior. It’s a vital aspect of any story, adding depth, richness, and humanity. Drama without humor is unbearable, and comedy without drama falls flat. Shakespeare understood that in order for the audience to experience …
Read More
“Write What You Know” Can Be Misunderstood
Every writer hears the old song: “Write what you know.” This can be misunderstood. The fact is, we don’t write what we know, but rather, we write the nature of our experience. A plumber doesn’t have to write about toilets. They can write about nine-foot green goblins on another planet — because those goblins are …
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Asking “Why?”
Always keep your ideal reader close by in your mind asking “Why?” Our subconscious is perfectly designed for this process. It already knows the story. Our only job is to remain curious and inquire into the nature of things. As we do this, our story comes into focus. It takes time and patience. Relax and …
Read More On Writing Dialogue
“If you have a good ear for dialogue, you just can’t help thinking about the way people talk. You’re drawn to it. And the obsessive interest in it forces you to develop it. You almost can’t help yourself.” –Robert Towne When you follow the labyrinth of most conversations, you’ll discover one constant: people are always …
Read More Developing Your Writing Technique
Technique develops over time. By reading and writing, we absorb a sense of story structure, cadence, and rhythm. We learn how to create and release tension. We deepen our relationship to our protagonist’s dilemma, and ultimately (God willing) we grow in our understanding of human nature. By sitting with our imaginations regularly and allowing …
Read More
Writing Tip – How to Show and Tell
“Action is eloquence.” – William Shakespeare If we find ourselves editorializing, that is telling or explaining what is happening in our story. It’s “OK” . . . however, we probably don’t want to stay on this track for too long. We want to get back to the action. We want to get back to showing …
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Humor in Writing
There is nothing less funny than writing about humor. I was a standup comic for years. Every once in a while after a show, some dude would come up to me wanting to discuss my act. I’d cringe while listening to the person attempt to intellectualize the mysterious process of getting laughs. And now, here …
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Make it Dramatic
“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” – Alfred Hitchcock Story moves as the result of complications that arise, not out of plot, but out of character and theme. As our protagonist attempts to get what he wants, he must overcome obstacles. Antagonists force our hero to react, to respond, and to rethink …
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