When we think of “writers”, we tend to think of the short story and novel writers. We tend to ignore non-fiction writers and even completely disregard poets at times. It’s unfortunate because classic poets have...
Kids don’t read. A sad fact that is only perpetuated by media and technology. Are media and technology ALWAYS to blame to you? Yes. Literature and stories are not dying, but the need to...
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking...
A community is–in a vaguely generic sense–a unified body of individuals with one or more commonalities. The lovely thing about such a definition is that the word can be expanded beyond locality, which is...
As teachers, we strive to get students to perform at the highest level of the pedagogical taxonomy. Personally, I follow Bloom’s and cross-reference with Maslow’s psychological needs hierarchy. But, why…? It’s complicated. I’ll hit...
Working with Victoria M. Patton– a forensic chemist and author of the crime fiction Damien Kaine series–here are 10 things you may or may not know about crime and investigation that can take your fiction writing from amateur to expert.
How your character speaks is important to understand their background. Rather than info-dump, you can imply it with accent, speech patterns, idioms…
What do readers like as gifts? Books, duh. *rolls eyes* Obviously, but, reading isn’t just a habit or hobby; reading is an experience, a lifestyle. All book nerds come to love everything related to...
As writers, we have a tendency to change up how we refer to time as we progress through our work. It’s a pain to go back and change all that; but, you gotta do what you gotta do to ensure your writing is understood how you intend it to be. Tense can have a major effect on just that.
There are many novice writers who ask for advice in our communities, so I wanted to compile some advice from the published and unpublished writers of my Writers’ Coffeehouse.
A former student of mine, Zane Indie I call him, actually honed in his writing passion through a game. I finally wanted to find out what these “game stories” were all about, so I interviewed him about his journey during 2.5 years playing Dungeons and Dragons.
My siblings noticed I was a nerd as a child when we would watch movies. If there was anything that sounded cool and historical–tattoo, book, weapon, anything–I would look it up. I want to show you five of my favorite ancient texts from movies and shows that I wish were in my library.
As creative writers, most of us want to share our stories and publish. I’m not gonna lie, I want to. Paradoxically, most of us are terrified to publish because of potential failure and rejection. Well, maybe you should start with a smaller audience and publish to a few magazines.
As I started to work on my character development, I had to keep in mind that dialogue is a key feature to understanding a character. How they speak can reveal much of their demographics–let alone the content of their conversation. If you didn’t know that, you know it now.
The fascination, confusion, curiosity, sadness, anger, disappointment, pride, devastation, happiness–all of it. Algernon yanked me by the hand and took me on every ride the emotional fair had to offer. That tells me, though, he’s an excellent catch.
