Have you lost control of your story? Has it decided the path you charted (by plotting, pantsing, or whatever) is not the way things are going to go? Is it a rebellion of sorts? A mutiny? Before you hoist the white flag of surrender, there are strategies to consider that can bring things back into balance and help you regain the upper hand. Plot In the Ditch? The story that was set to begin with a cruise to the Bahamas … Read More »

Lately there’s both a lot of shoulder shrugging, and a lot of fear around generative AI making inroads into creative endeavors. Everybody seems to have some opinion about it, from Wow, so cool! To  OMG! It’s going to take over! So of course, I had to try out a few things to see how well generative AI could reproduce one of my creative loves, poetry. Below is a very shortened run-down of my wrangling with ChatGPT and poetry. I started … Read More »

When writing fiction, we often focus on the plot, and our characters become vehicles for moving the narrative forward. However, if we want readers to become invested in the story, we need to create protagonists who will draw them in. So what are some concrete strategies for helping readers identify with our main characters and develop some sort of attachment? How can we be sure readers care about what happens to these fictional friends, and that they stick around to … Read More »

As writers, we know that the three basic elements of a fictional story are character, setting, and plot. We spend a lot of time planning and developing each of those elements. However, if we want to create a story that really captures readers, we need to be mindful of the stakes. When we talk about stakes, we’re referring to what might be gained or lost in the story. The higher the stakes, the more compelling the story. If the protagonist … Read More »

Picky! Picky!” wasn’t exactly a compliment when Mom aimed it at you at the dinner table. You were supposed to eat everything on the plate and have no preferences. But we writers can hardly be picky enough when it comes to choosing just the right word. It’s a primary duty of a prose author—let alone a poet—to expend some effort in finding the expression that captures exactly the image she wants to convey. The one that rolls most smoothly over … Read More »

Your story idea is well underway, and the characters are firmly set in your mind. Yikes! They’re all naked! Unless your story takes place in a nudist colony, you’ll need to clothe those bodies, and quick! When and What? When your story takes place has a significant bearing on what your characters wear. You won’t dress a medieval peasant woman in a flowing gown of silk or velvet when they would be wearing linen or wool. They couldn’t afford it, … Read More »