As National Poetry Month draws to a close, here’s a closer look at a special form of poem that can be useful for poets and prose writers. A prose poem is a poem written in sentences. It appears as a block of text without line breaks. You could think of a prose poem as a… Read more »
I recently got a rejection saying that the agent was looking for a more “high-concept” story. What the heck does that mean, and how can I get a high concept of my very own? -Out of Ideas Here are some explanations of high concept that I’ve heard: “High concept is an old story with… Read more »
The world around you is a busy place, but as a writer you might also think of it as a feast. Your senses awake to a buffet of images every morning. Just take breakfast, for example: the steaming scrambled eggs awash with butter lounging on a bed of toast like fluffy yellow gods. These indignant… Read more »
As creative people, we look at the way our right brains work, and think we’re alone in that. We think we’re the only people who have certain ways of working or certain problems in our work. Believing you’re alone,that it’s “just you” and “just the way you work” can hold you back. When you understand what’s… Read more »
“How can I gain confidence as a writer?” – Wendy L. Your parents have been lying to you. There is a monster under the bed. And its name is Self-Doubt. Self-Doubt is sneaky. It starts out like a small, niggling sticky note with a week-old due date: I really should submit to that writing contest…. Read more »
When I first started writing, I wrote the types of stories I loved to read–science fiction and fantasy–but it took a while for me to figure out the kinds of stories I wanted to tell. My early attempts were never the right stories, even though they fit with what I liked to read and watch…. Read more »
“How do you motivate your antagonist without making them seem like Dr. Evil?” – Anthony L. The problem I have with stories like Lord of the Rings (hey, I can call it out because I’m a huge fan!) is that it seems like the bad guy is complete jerk in every possible way. Yeah Sauron,… Read more »
Characters are all about self-discovery, finding meaning, and achieving goals. They’re usually seeking to improve themselves in some way—at work, in personal relationships, spiritually, or through self-growth. But time and again, their flaws sabotage them, blocking them from gaining what they want both on a conscious and subconscious level. It’s ironic, really; who they are… Read more »
Establishing the setting is one of the toughest elements of storytelling for me. I have always struggled with it. Painting that picture, or turning what I see in my head into words, has taken me a lot of time, study, and practice. So when I had the idea to write a story where two people… Read more »
Charged with writing an article on the topic of “inspiration on demand,” I considered the usual suspects—those tips and tricks that help spur my own creativity. I thought of all the wonderful sources for inspiration—such as this website’s Writer Igniter page or the Prompt-a-Palooza writing prompts I offer on my own blog each Monday. I… Read more »
