Warm Hugs for Writers

January 4, 2012

A warm & fuzzy new ebook you can, and should, take to bed with you. Because it’ll hug you back.   If this writing thing is so hard, which is what we hear all the time from writing teachers and tired old sages (me included on both counts) and around the cookie table at writing workshops, why are [...]

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Top Storyfix Posts of 2011

December 29, 2011

“Don’t take any shit from anyone.” – Billy Joel (storyteller)  Here they are… all 16 of ‘em. There are dozens more posts in the archives that gave these a run for their money, too.  I’m not crazy about so-called “top-10″ lists lately — especially when… oh, never mind — so why limit the love. Enjoy. A Mindset [...]

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Clearing the Air On – and In – Your First 100 Pages

December 26, 2011

Before you can pay something off, you need to set it up. Before you ask someone to invest, you must make a promise. Before there is a story, there is conflict. Before anyone cares, there must be stakes. Getting all of that in motion in your story is the mission of your first 100 pages.  [...]

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Mini-Workshop Part 2: The Great Seductive and Often Fatal Temptation of the New Writer

December 24, 2011

We all begin our storytelling experience as new writers.  And thus, we all have a journey to take.  Each journey is unique, with an infinite number of starting places and contextual baggage to either help us or weigh us down.  Usually both. Irrespective of those differences however, one thing is true: we all end up [...]

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A Little Holiday Gift for You: Part 1 of a 2-Part Mini-Workshop

December 22, 2011

(Refresher or Breaking News… this is essential, 101-level, can’t-hear-it-enough story coaching.) Part 1: The Make Or Break Moment in Your Story It’s not the ending. And it’s not the opening. The entire realm of story architecture is complex, and therefore challenging to discuss without a Big Picture view.  It’s like talking to an engineer about [...]

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“Get Out of Your Own Way” – A Guest Post by Art Holcomb

December 18, 2011

(Art Holcomb knocked it out of the park for us with a guest post six weeks ago.  He’s back, another killer contribution. This guy is good. L.) GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY  by Art Holcomb           “An exhaled breath must be cast away from you before you can take another.”  Years ago, a friend of [...]

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The Upside of ‘Disturbing’

December 14, 2011

My current kick is power writing.  Infusing narrative with a differentiating and memorable visual, an iconic freeze frame, a punch to the gut, a soft unspeakable touch, the forbidden, the exquistely beautiful, the unthinkable, the twisted and the ironic, the delivery of relief and the rendering of justice, the impossible made real… access to what is universal… …asking [...]

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“Theme”… Simplified.

December 10, 2011

As deep thinking, well-intentioned storytellers, we tend to want to make theme – one of the Six Core Competencies of successful storytelling – something mysterious and complex.  And therefore, challenging. It certainly can be.  But it doesn’t have to be.  The good news is… the latter (it doesn’t have to be challenging) is as much the [...]

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Cool Stuff to Read

December 7, 2011

I’m not a huge fan of interviews with “bestselling” authors, for the same reasons that some parents don’t like their kids memorizing the lyrics to the Judas Priest catalog.  That said, when I take off my writing-guru-guy hat I have to admit it can be fun, and vicarious, to see what the A-list is saying about [...]

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NaNo Now: A Guest Post from Frederick Fuller

December 4, 2011

I did NaNo this year and won (50,664 words). It was a blast; enjoyed every moment. Got up at 6 a.m. everyday and wrote until I made my daily word count, usually going well over in around three hours. Read Story Engineering and planned carefully during October. Wrote an outline, character study, backstory, theme, premise–everything. [...]

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