“Things” as Characters

 A writer asks: “My favorite creative writing book is ‘Setting’ by Jack Bickham. Use of setting as primary with characters, plot, theme, mood, etc derived from it and interacting with it seems of particular value in science fiction. Where would Deep Space 9 be without deep space and a space station! Setting is certainly the […]

Creative Writing Tips

Finding Your Creative Time Trouble Finding Inspiration for Your Novel? Finding Inspiration for Writers Tricking the Muse: The Creativity “Two-Step” Your Story as a Person One Way to Beat Writers Block! Writing from Your Passionate Self A Novelist’s Bag of Tricks Avoiding the Genre Trap 10 Essential Tips for Beginning Writers Your Plot Step By […]

Writing with Globular Clusters

In astronomy, a globular cluster is a form of galaxy that is a roughly spherical scattering of stars around a central core.  This pattern in reminiscent of plotting statistics where individual data points are scattered around a perceptible center – like where darts hit relative to the bulls eye. What does this have to do with writing?  When […]

Memes About Writing

Smothered in an Avalanche of Ideas What do you do when ideas come so fast they gum up the works, and the engine of your creativity grinds to a halt? Introducing the Story Mind Write Your Novel Step By Step – Introduction to Plot Follow this series of story development steps drawn from our StoryWeaver […]

Articles on Writing

Smothered in an Avalanche of Ideas What do you do when ideas come so fast they gum up the works, and the engine of your creativity grinds to a halt? Finding Your Creative Time Maybe the problem isn’t where you are writing, but when… Trouble Finding Inspiration for Your Novel? Here are some ideas to […]

Story Structure Seen As War

Imagine a story’s structure as a war and the Main Character as a soldier making his way across the field of battle.  In your mind’s eye, you likely see they whole scene spread out in front of you, as if you were a general on a hill watching the conflict unfold. That all-seeing “God’s eye […]

The Four Throughlines in To Kill A Mockingbird

There are four throughlines that must be explored in every story for it to feel to readers or audience that the underlying issues have been fully examined and the message completely supported. Throughline 1: The Objective Story The Objective Story is the big picture – the situations and activities in which all the characters are […]

Story Structure Seen As War

Imagine a story’s structure as a war and the Main Character as a soldier making his way across the field of battle.  In your mind’s eye, you likely see they whole scene spread out in front of you, as if you were a general on a hill watching the conflict unfold. That all-seeing “God’s eye […]

Story Structure Seen As War

Imagine a story’s structure as a war and the Main Character as a soldier making his way across the field of battle.  In your mind’s eye, you likely see they whole scene spread out in front of you, as if you were a general on a hill watching the conflict unfold. That all-seeing “God’s eye […]

The Dramatic Triangle

By Melanie Anne Phillips There are two story lines in every complete story, and you can either run them in parallel or you can hinge them together to form a dramatic triangle. The first story line is the overall story that follows the effort of the protagonist to achieve a goal in which all the characters […]