Can your fiction benefit from the real-world experience of someone who’s experienced, learned, or is passionate about something in your scenes? If so, interviewing that someone can be the best thing you can do to elevate your story! On the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers blog, I talk about the reasons why interviewing an actual human […]
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Can We Stop Using Writing as Punishment in Schools?
For as long as there have been teachers, kids, and writing implements, writing has been used to punish unruly students. Whether it was writing “I will not talk in class” twenty times on the chalkboard or being told to pen a dreaded 500-word essay on “respect” after a too-rowdy assembly, most of us have memories […]
How to Write Weather into Your Scenes – On the RMFW Blog
Talking about the weather is so mundane. Writing weather into your stories shouldn’t be. Make weather work hard for you in your fiction! See my tips this week on the RMFW blog: “Using Weather to Strengthen Scenes in Your Writing and Storytelling“
When Storms and Direful Thunders Break
Lighting, of course, is an essential part of any stage performance. Usually, the lighting is planned and provided by the play’s director and stage crew. Last week, at a performance at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, something else was at hand. I’d gone with a friend to see of The Two Gentlemen of Verona on the […]
Character-Building: What Does Freedom Mean to Your Protagonist? – On the RMFW Blog
When you’re creating a character in your story, it’s important to make them as well-rounded and three-dimensional as possible. You must know their history, their desires, their goals, their obstacles, their quirks, and the way they’ll react in any given situation. Have you considered how they define freedom, and what they might do if they […]
Ten Things I Can’t Live Without as a Writer That Are Conspiring to Kill Me
They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But I’m starting to think what makes me stronger is going to kill me anyway, just for giggles. So here it is, this week’s list of things I can’t live without as a writer, but which I’m certain are going to shorten my lifespan by years. […]
