Piper Bayard of Bayard & Holmes The Americans, a show about undercover Soviet agents posing as Americans in the DC area during the Cold War, teaches writers solid lessons in both what it gets wrong, and what it gets right. Since I write espionage nonfiction and fiction and partner with a senior member of the […]

Sarah Cy According to the old adage, "practice makes perfect." For a writer, reading and writing is practice. So the more you do it, the better a writer you should be, right? In reality, reading and writing every day does not a great writer make. Not if "reading and writing every day" means browsing news […]

I first learned about the 12 Stages of Physical Intimacy from Linda Howard, who used to give a very popular talk on the subject based on the work of Desmond Morris, Intimate Behavior: A Zoologist's Classic Study of Human Intimacy. On the downside, Linda has stopped giving this workshop. On the upside, she has spoken […]

I took one acting class in college. In addition to discovering I didn't want to pursue drama, but simply storytelling, I learned some of the challenges of portraying a character's persona to an audience just beyond the stage. One tidbit was my takeaway that you need something to do with your feet, your hands, your […]

Tiffany Yates Martin How to Dig Deeper for the Buried Treasure in Your Story There is a scene in the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love that wrings my heart out every time I see it. Childhood sweethearts and longtime spouses, played by Steve Carrell and Julianne Moore, are separated after the wife’s infidelity. Carrell’s character can’t stop sneaking […]