One of the most common questions I’ve heard from students about writing is how to find ideas to start a piece. They’re often told to start with action in the middle of a scene. But sometimes they can’t think of an action or a scene, and the ideas just won’t come. A scene is a… Read more »
Story Bites Writing Prompts
Story Bite 21: Writing Symbols
Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a great year of writing ahead. Late in December, I had a lovely chat with a young reader and writer about a story she was working on. She’d come up with a great scenario and there were many places her story could go. Ever since, I’ve been thinking… Read more »
Story Bite 20 (Special): How to Write an Action Scene!
This is a little bit different from my other Story Bite posts. I wanted to try this format and see if young writers would this kind better (maybe I’ll just mix it up in the future). In this post, I’m sharing a video for a series created and hosted by Debbie Ridpath Ohi called Ask Me… Read more »
Story Bite 19: Building Character Through Sensory Details
Sensory details—of smell, taste, sight, and sound—make a scene come alive and can also make a character feel real. Thinking about sensory details and how someone reacts to them tells you a lot about that person. So even though this may feel like a post on descriptive writing, it’s really about digging deep into who… Read more »
Story Bite 18: Creating Myths
As I’ve been sheltering in place to help keep my community safe, I’ve been thinking about what stories do for us during challenging times. They can help us look with new perspectives at what surrounds us, sometimes understanding it better or more deeply. They can also help us escape into worlds far from ours. Many… Read more »
Story Bite 17: World Building and History (Today)
For this Story Bite in a time of global social isolation, I’m going to delve into one of my favorite parts of writing: research that helps a writer to understand a world. This post will also connect to the incredible historical situation we all find ourselves in today…but more on that in a bit. (By… Read more »
Story Bite 16: It’s All About Perspective
Perspective—the voice that tells a story—can entirely change a story’s meaning, purpose, and feel. Here’s an example: When I was four years old, I was invited to the birthday party of my older brother’s best friend, Aaron. There was a chocolate cake in the kitchen while activities went on outside. I grew bored with the… Read more »
Story Bite 15: Writing Action (Part 2)
In our last Story Bite, we wrote an action scene. We focused exclusively on the path and the obstacles facing our character, but mostly the journey itself. Those scenes are fun to write. For many authors, they just flow onto the page: We’re narrating what’s going on and that’s often not too hard to write… Read more »
Story Bite 14: Writing Action (Part 1)
Writing action scenes can be a lot of fun. They’re energetic and your character is truly doing something. They can move along the story, end or begin a page with power, and hook your reader. For a lot of people, they’re easy to write—because it’s just movement. And that’s a great place to start. For… Read more »
Story Bite 13: The Very Beginning (Part 2)
In the last story bite, we came up with an idea. Now we’re going to put that idea on the page. And what we’re looking for is…an opening line. First, I want everyone to know that it is extremely rare for a professional author to nail that opening line in the first writing of the… Read more »
Today is the birthday of @michaelmagrasbooks, a brilliant writer and critic who happens to be a fantastic actor, singer, and altogether witty gent too. His creativity, humor, intellect, empathy, and progressive ideals make him an absolute joy to be married to. Happy birthday, my dear!
#birthday #NovemberBirthdays #AmazingPeople
More gorgeous brown leaves, but this time backlit by the morning sun. These are one of two kinds of oaks in our yard (the other one is golden-brown), and these are red-brown but glow crimson in the sun. They`re gorgeous with or without sun. I adore these warm colors.
#AutumnColors #NovemberColors #Autumn #Maine #trees