If you “put yourself out there” in any capacity, you (or is it just me?) compare yourself to what is already out there. I think that’s human nature. Wish it wasn’t. Inevitably, with comparison comes the realization that you are (A) as good as some people (B) better than some people (C) worse than some…
Remember when our music choices were limited to vinyl or the radio? If you liked a song or a musician, you bought their whole album. The thing is, then you had to listen to every song on the album. But that’s what was great about them. Of course, you could move the needle to the…
I can’t get an image out of my mind of a young woman, a teenager, who was on the morning news recently. She, along with three young men, also teenagers, were being interviewed because they did something heroic on their way home from their Junior Prom. (I’m purposefully being vague because I don’t want to…
Don’t you love the sound of that word? It sounds like the name of a much-loved animal friend or something like a scone you’d have slathered in cream and jam. Anyway…. Quick answer: a MacGuffin is a trope that authors use. Tropes are devices a writer fetches from their toolbox to appeal to their audience….
A few weeks ago, I wrote about emotion versus knowledge in storytelling, noting that writers can look up any facts they need. But how do you get the facts besides using Google? Personal Experience: If what you’re writing is based on your lived experience, including setting and secondary characters, you won’t have much research to…
