All great books are about the quest. What does the main character (MC) want? Desire is what propels the MC to step out of their comfort zone and dare to do something different. If Frodo and Samwise didn’t long for adventure, then The Lord of the Rings wouldn’t exist…or would have been a vastly different […]

Image courtesy of Kevin Wood via Flickr Creative Commons Character building is essential for telling stories that readers a) can’t put down and b) will never forget. Why am I now talking about character building, since I know I have a reputation for focusing a lot of blogs and classes on story structure? Stories, like […]

Finding our focus has never been easy. Many of us have always lacked direction and fallen short on “clarity.” We’d multitasked ourselves into a daily fugue state long before COVID and quarantines and Zoom upended our lives. Time somehow seeped through an unseen hole, leaking away one errand, email, trip, chore, or event at a […]

Advice floats around everywhere. We get it from friends, family, cutesy memes, gurus, life coaches, books, television, podcasts and…bloggers *giggles*. We’re subjected to advice, whether we want it or not. Please, let me be clear. Wise counsel is a good thing. Definitely. We certainly don’t want to try and do this “life thing” with zero […]

The Johari Window can be one of many powerful tools for crafting dimensional characters. It can also help creators develop layered stories (plots) that will resonate long after the audience reaches ‘The End.’ Why? Because great fiction is even better therapy. Too many believe fiction to be a fluff, an escape, a fantasy getaway. Some […]

Wounds matter in life and in fiction. We’ve all been hurt in some way and to some degree. Just goes with being human. Admitting weakness, failure, mistakes, and flaws isn’t always easy. In fact, it can be downright terrifying for even the ‘strongest’ of us. It’s an especially daunting task in a world that idolizes […]

Deception is a marvelous technique for the seasoned storyteller. Once one masters the basic skills (check out my new plotting class), this then frees the artist to begin honing more highly advanced techniques for beguiling audiences. Of all storytelling techniques, I believe my favorite is the unreliable narrator. Deception is key in order to successfully […]

Image courtesy of IMDB and Netflix’s ‘Extraction.’ The story-worthy problem is the beating heart of all superlative fiction. Unfortunately, creating this central core can often be overlooked. This is particularly true for writers relying on school training. English teachers didn’t mind we used twenty-five metaphors on one page because their goal was to teach us […]

The ‘enemy without a face’ is probably the hardest sort for a new writer to wrap his around. If you’ve been following along the recent blogs, I’ve been discussing a concept I developed to help you plot leaner, meaner, faster and cleaner. I call this concept, the Big Boss Troublemaker. Identify him/her/it? And smooth sailing. […]

Introverts tend to get a bad rap. No, we are not ALL serial killers. Okay…known serial killers. They have to catch you first 😀 . Wait, where was I? Oh, yeah. So, first of all, far too many people equate introversion with social anxiety, when those are two totally different topics. One can actually be […]