The two-sentence version: I swam for hours upstream against the raging current. I’d have made it, too, if it weren’t for that cuss of a bear and his wicked, yellow teeth at the waterfall. And as a haiku: Against the current swim upstream passionately fanged by a bear
Writing
My First Two Sentence Story
Here is my first attempt at writing a story in two sentences: I walk, for now undetected, with a mimic of their emotionless countenance set like chiseled flint on my face while the terror in my heart races beneath the drab, gray, requisite coveralls. The cold, unforgiving sidewalk provides the solution: fill the empty cavities […]
Hero’s Journey in Three Act Structure
I’ve was recently reading Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell, and he has a nice outline of The Hero’s Journey, or Mythic Structure in a Three Act format, which I paraphrase here: Act I Introduction to hero and his world Disturbance that interrupts the hero’s routine and/or a “call to adventure” The hero may […]
Kinds of Writers
So I was poking around on the FA Forums to kill a few minutes, and I ran across this 3-month-old thread about how much description in writing, which caught my attention because I’d been thinking about it lately. I thought this post by Ursa Maximus was really well put: I think above all else, an […]
Their Ways
This page documents some things I found while reading other peoples’ works that I think stood out as lessons in greatness or lessons in mistakes. I only cite authors if I quote them verbatim and if it’s not so bad it might embarrass them :-O Errors of Their Ways I read a short story in […]
Character Discovery Scenarios
Sometimes it is helpful to see how your character would handle being in different situations to get a better idea of who he/she is. Here are a few samples: Set your character up on a blind date How does he/she react to the idea? What does he/she do to prepare? What happens on the date? […]
Questions To Ask Your Character
Sometimes I talk to my characters. Here are some questions that you can ask your character to get the conversation going and discover more about him/her: Questions for your character How do you feel about that? Why did you do that? What interests you about that? When did that develop in you? Where were you […]
Character Development Template
Here is a template, in the form of a set of questions, for understanding a character when you first meet him/her. At the bottom I’ve linked to the sources for a few of the questions and references to some resources on this topic. Basics Full name: Species: Age: How old is he? (And how […]
Writing Tips/Pointers/Reminders
Here are some tips, pointers, and reminders I find useful to keep close while writing. I put them here in the hopes that at least one will be helpful to you …. This page changes at the drop of a hat as I find something useful to add, and I just add the new content […]
Write Minded
Here I’m going to drop links to helpful pointers, tips, lessons, and tools for better writing that I have learned or picked up here and there and along the way of whatever way I am on. Since most of my writing is fiction and poetry, these are focused primarily on those genres. I’m always interested […]