writing Archives

On Fog & Emotion

Like the cat of Carl Sandburg’s poem, fog does not announce itself very well. So how can we use this stealthy behavior as a writing tool?

A Little Experiment with Weather & Emotions

Earlier this year, I did a little study about weather and emotions. Here are some thoughts on what I found.

The Thunderstorm Story Model

I’ve always loved the dynamics behind thunderstorms and recently, I’ve been seeing parallels to the standard plot curve many writers have been taught.

Psychological Injunctions, Drivers & Your Characters

In legal terms, injunctions are authoritative warnings or orders, typically given in the court system. Drivers are quite the opposite. They are the things you should do. So how can we relate these to your characters?

On Wind & Emotion

Just like clouds and emotion go hand-in-hand (with respect to literature, anyway), so does wind and emotion.

On Clouds and Emotion

Clouds and emotion go together when you think about it. We have been trained since birth to recognize signs in the sky, whether we did so deliberately or not.

Give Your Character a Test

There are a lot of ways to get inside your character’s head: give that character a test, perform some transactional writing with them, or even pull out the all the Gestalt stops and use an empty chair to have a conversation.

Research: Some Odd Findings

As writers, we joke about the research we do and what the NSA or CIA or INTERPOL or whatever other agency out there might think of us. Personally, I don’t really believe any of that. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve looked up how to [redacted] or fit a [redacted] into a…
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On Writing a Synopsis, Blurb, Logline and Tagline

It’s the same for every writer, I suppose: the synopsis is a beast that guards the gates of publication, one that rears its ugly head right after finishing a 100,000-word novel. So, how do you best write one?

Short Story: The Royal

I used to own a 1936 Royal typewriter, the “original laptop.” It was a heavy beast, too. This story was written in 2003, back when the typewriter was on the desk beside me. I lost it in a flood about fifteen years ago, but I still have that itch to find another. I just hope the one I find doesn’t come with something attached to it.

Tag: writing