Last Minute NaNoWrMo Tips

It’s easy to blast NaNoWrMo.  I’ve done it myself.  Not because I think I’m above it.  Rather, because it invites the wrong goal.  The point of it all is too easily missed. It implies that the craft of writing a novel is quantitative rather than qualitative.  That simply finishing 50,000 words will take you closer […]

A Little Help for NaNoWrMo Writers

Not that you need help.  Actually, if you’re signing up for this exercise and you don’t think you need help… then the overwhelming odds are that you do.  Need help, that is. Because it’s next to impossible to write a publishable novel in 30 days.  That said… miracles do happen. And I’m going to tell […]

Storytelling in Context to… What?

Everything we do in life is informed by context.  Context is one of the greatest, most powerful words in any language.  Life itself is nothing other than context.  The only things that exist in a vacuum are floating in outer space.  And even they have context. Too often our stories end up being described just […]

Another 1.5 Minute Workshop on the Six Core Competencies

Storytelling.  It’s everywhere. When it works, there are almost always six separate elements – essences, really – that are in play.  Sometimes you have to read a 400 page novel or sit through a two hour movie to witness this universal model at work. Sometimes you can behold their collective, congealed power in a minute […]

What is Past is Prologue

Ever wondered what happens to frustrated novelists and screenwriters?  They become copywriters. Or maybe it’s the other way around.  Having been there, done that and been all three, at times concurrently, it usually is the other way around.  In my entire  30-year career in the marketing commnications and training arena I only met one copywriter who didn’t aspire to […]

Montana Musings: Thoughts On a Writing Conference

We hear what we want to hear. Last weekend I was privileged to take part in a great writing conference thrown by Writers of the Flathead (it’s a lake, folks) in Kalispell, Montana.  A rewarding and very classy experience, run by and attended by warm wonderful folks. My mind was in overdrive the entire time. […]

Good News For POD People

If you don’t understand what that means, or if you think it refers to a pre-millennium science fiction flick… maybe the news won’t strike you as all that good. Then again, if you’re reading Storyfix – which you are – it should. If you’re a writer looking to get into print, or if you’ve already […]

My First “What if?” Moment

Some great stories are not conceptually driven.  Jonathan Franzen’s current #1 bestseller, Freedom: A Novel, for example, is about a married couple in which the wife has a wandering eye. Not exactly The DaVinci Code, conceptually-speaking. More often, though, bestsellers and everything else on the rack has a conceptual energy that drives characterization and theme.  The […]