What drives your character? Story involves characters who have some motivation, something that moves them forward. Desire, wish, need, problem and the motivation to seek a solution. This can’t simply be announced: we wouldn’t believe it. It has to be felt and enacted. Motivation is the agent of change, and change is the key to […]
Motivation and Change Read More »
1) Who is the main character? 2) Who is the secondary character? 3) What is the deepest conflict or suffering between these two? 4) What concrete event could happen to bring out that deepest conflict or problem? 5) What are some surface conflicts that are also real (matter) between these two?
Short Story: Some Questions to Consider Read More »
My kids and I are reading the Harry Potter books for the first time. One of the techniques J.K. Rowling uses again and again is this: something is happening, characters are reacting to it, but we readers don’t quite know what is going on. We are catching up. The reason I know this happens again
Try This at Home: Harry Potter Read More »
What’s wonderful about writing prompts is that they provide cross-currents to the way our minds are already running. If our minds are creaks, babbling along in one direction, the prompt sends a rush going in a different direction. The result? White water, rapids: story. Energy. Writing. When writing with prompts, it can be tremendously helpful
1) Try to keep things a secret. This is not something we are great at in our family, though we are getting better. We always want to let someone know as soon as we’ve gotten—or even thought of—the perfect present. Leo and Charlie are making secrets gifts in class for us, and Leo keeps asking
3 Gift-Giving Habits to Apply to Your Writing: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
In graduate school, I was fortunate to be a student of the late great Lucille Clifton. Not only was she an outstanding poet, but she was an exemplary teacher. And she used her wit and sense of humor to convey so many layers of meaning in her often short poems. She frequently spoke about the
Speaking Aloud: by Devi Laskar Read More »
Recently, in our wonderful Mentoring Class, Elizabeth Stark posed some interesting questions to us, about why we think we write and what our mission is. My wonderful colleagues at the Book Writing World generously shared their answers and allowing me to publish them. I don’t want to color their answers by their gender or geographic
Seeking Purpose & Siphoning Gas: by the Book Writing World Read More »
I’m not new to the computer, and I’m not new to moving files from one “place” on the computer to the other. I’ve been working on a computer and moving things for years, even decades. Yet accidents happen. I accidentally erased a lot of my work recently, as I moved it from one place to
Sometimes When You Lose, You Win: by Devi Laskar Read More »
There’s a lot of pressure on me to make money from my writing. Just doing art for the joy of doing it doesn’t mean scheduling time for it during the weekends. Art is something that’s acceptable to do only when all the real work is done. Well the “real” work is never done. So I
Building the Writer’s Platform: (Guest Blog) by Thais Derich Read More »
I am setting out to reread my manuscript of my latest book, and I looked back to a blog I wrote a few years ago when I was doing just that with a very early draft of what eventually became this book. The advice about editing your own work felt helpful for me and I
10 Ways to Be Your Own Best Editor: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
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