Counterfeit creativity is robbing our species blind. We are sacrificing our souls on the altar of cheap, fast, free and easy, but at what price? For most of human history, creativity had a cost. A painting required years of training, mistakes, dedication, practice, and courage. Music required months and years of pain, blisters, practice, rehearsal, Read more
Why Choice—Not Talent—Drives Great Stories
Choice is a word we bandy about a lot in modern times, especially in catchy little “thought-leader” quotes on social media. Over the weekend, someone posted this little nugget of wisdom: Some uncomfortable math: Your bank account is a record of your decisions Your body is a record of your habits Your relationships are a Read more
Read MoreIf AI Loves Your Writing, Be Very VERY Worried
AI is the new buzzword. Everything is AI, has AI, offers AI. To be blunt, AI is not the problem. People believing the tool can replace the work is the problem. Yes, I have been quieter on here far longer than usual. Not gone, just down and dirty in the trenches doing postgraduate work in Read more
Read MoreForgiveness: Everyone Loves a Good Redemption Arc
Forgiveness is arguably one of the hardest concepts for us to wrap our brains around—which might be why we’re so fascinated by it. What is forgiveness, really? Who is redeemable? What does restoration look like? Last fall, I wrote about a universal emotion: Schadenfreude—Misfortune, Revenge, Justice & Catharsis. It’s not hard to feel a little Read more
Read MoreWar of the Worlds 2025: Is AI Ruining Storytelling?
War of the Worlds 2025. What do I say? What can be said? Other than Orson Welles is probably going to start haunting Amazon warehouses or that it was the pandemic…and Ice Cube really needed the money. If you haven’t yet seen War of the Worlds 2025, take the challenge. I merely recommend that you Read more
Are We Too “Domesticated” to Write Great Stories?
Are we too “domesticated” to write truly great stories? This might seem like an odd question, but bear with me. I’ve been incredibly blessed over the course of my life to travel all over the world. While I did get to check out some of the resorts, my favorite travel stories seem to always involve Read more
Read MoreFortitude: Dream, Do, Then Keep on DOING Day After Day
Fortitude—enduring the tired, tedious and unremarkable chores—is what makes the difference between those who dream and those who do. Why am I talking about this? Because recently I saw some quote scroll past on social media. It was something (of course) posted by one of those super happy “life coach” people. Though I’m certain the Read more
Read MoreSchadenfreude: Misfortune, Revenge, Justice & Catharsis
Schadenfreude is a word that many of y’all might not have heard of, yet we’ve all felt it. Interestingly enough, it can be a great tool to keep our audience interested and breathlessly wanting more. What is schadenfreude, other than a fifty dollar word we can toss around to impress friends and colleagues? Schadenfreude—a combination Read more
Stakes: How to Hook an Audience All the Way to THE END
Stakes, bizarrely enough, are a key ingredient missing in many stories. If the characters don’t have skin in the game, why would the audience? The bigger the stakes the better the page turner. Whether on the page or on the screen, what keeps audiences enraptured the most? What makes us spend an entire weekend inhaling Read more
Read MoreAgency: The Critical Component of ALL Great Stories
Agency means a condition of being in action, instrumental, or possessing some kind of power. It can incorporate not only making decisions, but the belief that we (or our characters) have choice. If we think about it, if there aren’t options, then by default, our characters have no power and are not making any decisions. Read more
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