Evil fascinates us, and has since the dawn of human consciousness. I continually emphasize that humans are story creatures, which is good news for writers, since we’re in the story business. Though not all stories face off evil directly, all stories must include conflict to be considered a story. Conflict isn’t, per se, evil, but Read more

Transformation is an integral part all great stories. The trick, however, is to leave a trail of breadcrumbs to show how a character has either progressed or regressed. Few things can be more disappointing than reading a story where SUDDENLY, POOF! The MC has some grand epiphany at the end how they really needed to Read more

Self-discipline usually is one of those terms most people use in January when hastily scribbling out New Year’s Resolutions. Of course, that was before 2020 came along and tore a hole in the space-time continuum. Every day is now Monduesday. Ketchup is a vegetable and the past seven months have been like the IRS, TSA, Read more

Humans are a story people, meaning we all share one thing in common—we LOVE a great hero. Yet, crafting a hero isn’t as simple as one might think. In fact, new writers generally serve up a ‘hero’ too soon. They fail to understand that the title—HERO—is something that must be earned. In fact, the harder Read more