One of the tell-tale signs of a master storyteller, as opposed to a competent one, is not what is revealed in a story, but when it is revealed—the icing on the cake. Advanced writers understand something newer writers usually do not: the most powerful moments in a...

One of the fastest ways to inject life into a scene is action. Not noise. Not chaos. Action. Few tools change a scene’s energy as quickly as a sudden physical altercation: a shove, a punch, a grab, a chair tipping backward. Used correctly, a physical altercation...

One of the most important lessons a writer can learn about writing good dialogue, especially dialogue meant for actors to speak, is simple: dialogue must sound natural when spoken. Dialogue, if properly written, isn’t found on the page; it’s found in the air, spoken...

Most people think about accountability only after a project begins—such as showing up, meeting deadlines, providing progress reports, and doing check-ins to gauge your status. They consider the consequences if you fail to show up. But true accountability doesn’t start...

I didn’t realize when moving forward stopped being a conscious decision and became an ingrained habit. Initially, forward motion felt like discovery. Each new task I completed, each small success I achieved, fostered the sense that movement was shaping my future. I...

The first time effort changed my world, I felt it before I understood it. It wasn’t a dramatic moment; it was an impulse. We had few neighbors during my boyhood, but as I walked down the road, I saw wild onions growing in their yards. Someone had mowed their spring...

In that quiet moment, I realized I was no longer striving. For most of my life, I chased something I could never quite name. I moved against the ticking of an internal clock only I could hear, always aware that time kept moving forward. No actual Big Ben was telling...

I had been visible for years before I realized I was disappearing. My name appeared on programs. My work circulated in rooms I wasn’t in. I was introduced, quoted, and invited back. People recognized me in hallways and said kind, even effusive, things about my...

I realized I had become someone I didn’t recognize. It didn’t come with an announcement. It was a transformation unfolding in the most ordinary circumstances. I was standing in a doorway, of all places, listening to someone speak harshly to me about a matter that, at...

Who can turn the world on with her smile? I grew up watching The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, so I was bouncing off the wall, as a young screenwriter, when Mary Tyler Moore’s MTM Enterprises (co-owned with Grant Tinker) wanted my script. Mary...

I was raised to believe that when I came to an obstacle, it was a personal shortcoming if I did not push through, a personal failure if I did not succeed, and a personal cowardice if I gave up. Those beliefs inhabited the marrow of my bones and festered in the...

I always believed that human glory and life’s meaning were found in the senses: what I saw, touched, felt, heard, smelled, and tasted as I sped down the passing lane of accomplishment. These things provided the richness of living, complementary to the mountainous...