Use Setting to Reveal Character, Theme, and Change
In a post on Writer Unboxed, Barbara Linn Probst offers good advice on choosing the right details to include about your setting. You never...
Hell – and Conflict – Is Other People
Conflict is a key element to creating tension and showing character change over the course of your story. Some conflict is easy - even...
Use Micro-Tension to Build Reader Anticipation
Tension is key to narrative drive, the element that keeps readers turning pages. If you're writing a mystery novel, you might think that your...
Create a Strategy for Your Writing Goals
In a post on BookBaby, Steven Spatz says creativity is necessary for your writing, but a strategy will help you meet your goals.
Along with...
Prompt: What Do You Miss?
During her interview with the Write the Book podcast, poet Maggie Smith suggests a prompt inspired by the work of another poet. In Joe...
Inquiry Keeps Pages Turning
In this week's podcast, the Writing Excuses hosts continue their discussion of the M.I.C.E. quotient, this time focusing on Inquiry. They talk about how...
Milieu is Your Sense of Place
In this week's podcast, the Writing Excuses hosts continue their series on the M.I.C.E. framework, this time examining the element of Milieu and how stories...
Can You Follow Directions?
During her interview with the Write the Book podcast, Jessica Hendry Nelson suggests a writing prompt inspired by the title of her memoir, If Only...
Prompt: The Devil Himself
During her interview with the Write the Book podcast, Nancy Hayes Kilgore suggests a prompt inspired by a scene in her novel Bitter Magic,...
Writing Excuses: What is the M.I.C.E. Quotient?
In this week's podcast, the Writing Excuses hosts start a conversation on the M.I.C.E. quotient: an organizational tool which categorizes story elements as Milieu, Inquiry,...
