There are two fundamental modes in fictional storytelling: summary and scene. Summary is the storyteller’s voice—the one that leads us skillfully through the story, collapsing and condensing time as necessary in order leave out the irrelevant bits, and tell us what we need to know, in terms of background info on the story. Scene is the story itself, unfolding in … Read More
How to Carve Out the Time for Creative Work
I’ve been busy this spring. Maybe you have too. I’ve had a few weeks where I didn’t feel like I had the space in my life for creative work. Maybe you’ve had a few weeks (or longer) like that too. I’m all for letting the creative fields lie fallow after a big push on a story, for holding open the … Read More
How to Get your Reader to Share in the Emotional Experience of your Protagonist
For so many of us, it was the way books made us feel when we were kids that made us want to write them when we grew up. The plots of those early, formative books…well, the fact is, we probably don’t remember a whole lot about them at this point. Regardless, we remember those feelings of wonder, of connection–moments when … Read More
What’s your cup of tea?
If you’ve been writing for a while, you’ve probably gotten to the point where you treat your writing like work, whether or not anyone is actually paying you for it–and that in many ways is the mark of a professional. But creative writing really is NOT like other forms of work, and at this time of year–which in so many … Read More
