Tweet I started the week talking about my short story class, and some of the challenges that come with providing feedback to our peers. The worst of it was talking about a sex scene buried in one of the many stories we’ve read so far. And, mostly, it was a whole lot of worrying over […]
Tweet I’m taking a short story class out at OU this fall. It’s the one I mentioned in the English department, where the professor claimed fantasy and science fiction stories don’t feature complex, compelling characters. Bah. That still makes me angry. I’m going to get myself in trouble in that class if I’m not careful. […]
Tweet I started the week with fond remembrances of cliff-diving without the water. And I started that post with a link back to other stories from my childhood, exploring the far forested acres of my parents’ farm. I blamed the recent nostalgia on my childhood buddy Josh, for mentioning some of those stories on Facebook, […]
Tweet I know I said Tuesday that I’d probably be dropping down to one post a week now that school has started, but that wasn’t a promise. Just my expectation. Besides, today’s isn’t really a post. It’s a quick question (although it could have ramifications for Posts of Thursdays Future). See, my reasoning for cutting […]
Tweet As you’re well aware, I’m halfway through my pursuit of a Master of Professional Writing degree at the University of Oklahoma. My classes start tomorrow. But I was on campus yesterday running hither and yon, signing up for tutorial time with the chair of my graduate committee, applying for a two-hundred-dollar parking pass, and […]
Tweet Yesterday’s post on the narrative difference between conflict and adversity ended with some specific advice: Avoid adversity by putting malicious cause behind your protagonist’s setbacks. The best way to do that is to make your antagonist responsible, but sometimes it can be a challenge to follow through on that. The trick is to manage […]
Tweet Way back when, I tried to start a series around here on some of the specialized storytelling terminology I’ve been learning in my Master of Professional Writing course. I got into Plates and Hooks and Scene Questions and Story Questions, and that diverted me off into a separate series on Story Questions. I’m not […]
Tweet I’ve spent a couple weeks trying desperately to finish up Taming Fire for publication this month. But last time we talked, it was about the questions that keep people reading your stories, and the big story question that drives your story forward. I said offhand that well-designed story questions and scene questions make it […]
Tweet At long last, I’m going to fulfill a promise made weeks ago. I’m going to teach you some storytelling terminology. As I admitted to Joshua Unruh yesterday, I tend to work off a couple different writing glossaries that use some overlapping but non-identical terms. That means when I say “plot point” in one context […]
Tweet I’ve told the story before about the time I graduated from college, realized I needed to get a job (yes, in that order), freaked out, and then fell into a high-paying technical-writing position that was created just for me. My interview went, “Would you prefer to work in this cubicle, or that one?” And […]
