by Ellen Buikema

Here I sit, in front of my laptop. The cursor blinks merrily at the top left of the page, maddeningly free of words. The muse isn’t talking. Maybe there is no muse. Maybe I am a fraud. Has this ever happened to you?… Read the post

By Lori Freeland

Have you ever read a book where the story (or romance, mystery, character arcs, or any major plot) is leading up to something big but when you get there, instead of a BIG BANG, you get a baby blip?… Read the post

by Leon Conrad

How long should a piece of writing be?

There is a huge range of opportunities for writers to explore between the towering masterpiece that is War and Peace and a condensed microfiction six-word story.

But what makes a piece of writing of any length work?… Read the post

By Leon Conrad

We’ve been telling stories way before we started writing them down.

The structures they follow are embodied within us.

There’s much we can learn about story—and about ourselves—from analysing the patterns that stories follow.

But how?

Tracing the Path of Story

My approach is to trace the patterns that each character in a story follows.… Read the post

There are hundreds of books and classes that insist a writer must start with a story with a specific story structure. This implies that anyone who doesn’t use that method is writing their stories the wrong way. Some writers avoid structure, saying it stifles their creativity.… Read the post