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How to Build Character Profiles… For Writers Who Hate Planning
How Architects Build Character Profiles When I started screenwriting I discovered my characters as I wrote them. It was fun to meet them for the first time, but when I went back to edit their...
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How Writers Can Keep Time From Slipping Away
The Real Reason Joss Whedon Left Twitter Should Make Sense to Writers Writer/director Joss Whedon just left twitter for reasons that should concern every writer. Reasons, as it turns out, that have...
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How to Ruin Your Favorite Stories By Adapting them for TV
This week I’m talking all about Cop Dramas The Procedural Formula Here’s a simple formula for destroying an original idea by adapting it for television: take a film (or comic book) series and shoehorn...
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How to Fix Your Story Without Going Back to the Drawing Board
The Case Against Editing as You Go When I first started writing I scrutinized every paragraph the moment after typing. I counted the syllables so I could adjust for rhythm and flow. I checked my...
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How to Write With Your Back Against the Wall
There are a lot of quotes on writing in need of correction, like this one: If writing isn’t fun don’t do it. CORRECTION If writing isn’t fun don’t do it. do it anyway. You’ve probably heard this old...
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How to Keep Writing From Weighing Your Life Down
I’ve blogged at length about how a writer’s life experience can improve their fiction, but I haven’t written on how the reverse is true, how fantasy can improve a writer’s reality. If the...
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Do Writers Have any Responsibilities to Reality?
Is there something wrong with perpetuating superstition through fiction? The Power of Urban Legends There’s a reason I put off getting my hair cut until the sides grow into big Wolverine spikes. I get...
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What Writing a Novel and Quitting Smoking have in Common
When I quit smoking everyone I knew still smoked. I didn’t have to buy a pack for the temptation find me. A friend would see me standing with my hands in my pockets and wave a cigarette in front of my...
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Raise the Curve: Why Writers Should Surround themselves With Passionate People
I have lived with my share of slackers; people who couldn’t be bothered to clean their hair dye out of the sink, to sweep up all their broken glass, or close the door on their way out of the...
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Why the Best Characters Overshare
A Big Difference Between Film and Fiction In film we sympathize with characters that are introduced in vulnerable situations. In fiction we get to see that vulnerability underneath their skin. In film...
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Point/Counterpoint: Should writers fear missing out on other things?
Point: Why Write About Events When You Can Live Them? Something big is happening tonight. It’s the mixer of the season. The gathering to end all gatherings. So, why are you staying in? Didn’t you hear?...
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How to Keep What You’re Reading Out of Your Writing
Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance I read a lot of non fiction, mainly social psychology books on the cutting edge of our understanding of the human condition. I’m interested in why we do what we do, why...
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How Writing a Novel is a lot like a Relationship
Last week I mentioned that I’d finished reading Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance. Rather than be a creativity kleptomaniac, I’m citing Ansari’s book as the inspiration for this article. In his book,...
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A Question About Diversity in Fiction
The Pros and Cons of Concealing Certain Character Traits There are good reasons to avoid identifying a character’s ethnicity, exact age, and body type in your writing, especially when these traits...
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A Storyteller’s Guide to Public Speaking
I used to have a nervous tick that manifested whenever I spoke in public. My leg shook like a cartoon bunny. The severity of the tick increased the worse I thought I was doing. If my audience folded...
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How to Make Sure Your Mystery is Satisfying
How the Lost School of Storytelling Blurred the Line Between Intriguing and Confusing I love writing mysteries with vast casts, layered subplots, and dozens of twists. My favorite mysteries contain...
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Why Every Story Needs Its Own Pit of Snakes
How to Make Your Character’s Lowest Moment Truly Nerve Wracking Every story should have a tragedy. Even stories with happy endings need at least one. Disney’s animated classic Cinderella has three....
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Writing While Angry: On Being a Frustrated Novelist in Public
You know those people that always assure you they’re a good person while their actions say otherwise? I’m not one of them. If you wander into my writing environment when I’m having an off day you will...
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I’m Not Me: On the Reality Behind Internet Personalities
What Trent Reznor Taught Me About Public Personas In 1997 the band Nine Inch Nails filmed a music video for their hit single The Perfect Drug. In the video the lead singer, Trent Reznor, looks like...
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How Writers can Give Fear an Upgrade
The bedrock of our deepest fears was laid by our ancestors. Fears like the dark, heights, inclosed spaces, intimacy, loneliness, embarrassment, and death. Our ancestors’ survival depended on these base...
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