Best Writing Tips for Classic Stories That Miss the Mark We dance around in a ring and suppose; but the secret sits in the middle and knows. ~ Robert Frost Out here among the trees and wide open sky and the endless chatter of birds nesting, I’ve been thinking about the way we have come to accept the simple conclusions offered in a lot of our best stories. I’m talking about easy endings like the girl gets the guy or the other way around. Fame is achieved. A house purchased. Or the...
Transformative Storytelling: Best Writing Advice What YOU already know about good storytelling thanks to your study of structure and plot We’ve wrapped two weeks of study on the Tolstoy short story, Master and Man, which came to us from the collection of Russian stories contained in A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by G. Saunders. And this is the last story we’ll be studying too. It was a doozy… Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy I read Master and Man and did so multiple...
Good Writing Tips and Reflections on Contemporary Memoir (This post, Thoughts on Contemporary Memoir, comes from Flight School, a site devoted to teachings for memoir writers) Confession time…I don’t read a lot of memoir these days. ???? I’ve read many, many over the years, and many novels too. And, I devoted myself to reading a pile of memoirs when writing my own. BUT…I don’t read many contemporary memoirs because I find myself feeling…well…how to say this kindly…put back. I want to...
Best Novel Writing Courses to Help You Craft a Bestselling Novel We’ve wrapped three weeks on this book, and I’ve taught nine classes with about thirty writers, examining the novel from nearly every craft perspective possible: Plot, voice, POV, and structure while asking through teacherly questions like: Can we find a hero in a book with twelve characters? Can we find a plot from the deck of plots we study? Is there a structure that adheres to the three part form? But this was also a teaching...
Best Creative Writing Classes Online: Write With Purpose & Passion In a class, quite recently, I signed into the Zoom call late and those already present were deep into a Covid discussion. Usually, I start class with upbeat music and silly dance moves—my on-line equivalent of the sage smudging techniques you might find in Native American traditions or in many spiritual communities—but as I increased the volume, the tide of conversation increased too, in volume and misery and division and...
