One of the most powerful tools a writer has in his pocket is urgency. When you think about the last great book or movie you read or saw, the one you couldn’t seem to move fast enough through because it was so incredible and you had to rush forward to find out what...
When we think of writing, we think of sitting at a keyboard or with a pen and composing our thoughts. Sometimes, some of us will expand our thinking and include writing as part of the reflective time when relaxing in the evening or taking a walk to decompress (though...
Writing Tip of the Day: Introduction to Layered Writing — What Is It and Why Should You Care? Layered writing sounds pretty much like it is. It involves weaving multiple narrative elements into the same passage or scene, such as plot, character, theme, emotion, and...
I’m interviewing writer Thomas Perry in a few days, and I thought it might be fun to return to his first book, The Butcher’s Boy, his first novel and the winner of the Edgar Award that year. It’s easy to see why it separated itself from the competition. It exemplifies...
In my years of teaching at universities and conferences, lecturing on podcasts, and conducting instructional panels and presentations, I have encountered the phrase “Show, Don’t Tell” as one of the most basic yet often misunderstood phrases and pieces of advice and...
How Hadestown Uses Timeless Storytelling to Captivate and Inspire Writers As I left the performance of the Broadway touring production of Hadestown at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC), it left me thinking about the storytelling techniques that made it such...
As I repeatedly mention, we writers all want to satisfy the end-user, the reader. When we get invited to write a blog for someone else’s website, we have another person to please: the website owner. As a writer, I believe I am in the customer service business, so when...
Deepening your characters’ motivations in the middle section of a story is vital to increasing the narrative's momentum. The middle section of your story, rather than sag, should be dynamic. It should further complicate the plot and use those motivations to create a...
You’re not writing an autobiography; you are writing a memoir. So, what’s the difference? A lot. An autobiography tells about your life. A memoir is a narrative work where you reflect on a particular time of your life, an experience, or maybe a theme of a specific...
I usually write about aspects of literature, but today, I will veer a bit. Several out there seem to be songwriters or budding songwriters and have asked for some songwriting tips, knowing I’ve had a little musical background, including writing, producing, and...