Why Values Matter: Writing Characters Whose Morals Shape the Plot
Scenes often fall flat not because of missing conflict or weak description, but because characters act without conviction. This post explores how giving each character a culturally rooted moral compass can ground your writing in meaning, drive tension, and create page-turning momentum. When values clash, the story ignites. This technique will change how you write scenes and how readers experience them.
Americana Literature: A Writer’s Guide to Capturing a Nation’s Soul
If your story feels flat or your characters are walking clichés, you might have forgotten to root your story in something real. Americana literature is not just about barns and bluegrass, truck stops and train whistles. It’s about the heartbeat of a people, the contradictions we carry, and the longing for home, even if that home exists only in memory. Today’s Success Point: Anchor your story in an emotional geography. Make your setting reveal the truth. Let it ache. Let it contradict itself. That’s how you turn landscape into legacy.
Writing for Actors – How Clear Objectives Make Characters Irresistible to Actors Wanting to Perform Your Work
I’ve been a professional actor, and I’ve written for actors, and I can tell you that when actors read a script, they’re not looking for beautiful words; they’re searching the script for a purpose, a purpose aligned explicitly with the role they are interested in playing. Clear objectives pull an actor in and make them want to play the role you are writing for them. A character with a clear objective, overall and within each scene, is a character an actor can sink their teeth into.