In 𝑂𝑛 𝑊𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔, Stephen King claims “outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers.” King suggests they limit inspiration and the joy of creativity. Jack Kerouac likely agreed, writing novels such as 𝑂𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑜𝑎𝑑 in a stream-of-conscious style on a long roll of paper.
What is poetry? According to dictionary.com, poetry is the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. I had to read poetry when I was in school. To be honest, I never thought much of it except for two poems by Edgar Allan Poe: “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee.”…
Which of the characters in this book were real people and which ones came from the author’s imagination? How hard was it for the author to write in the dialect of a fifteen-year-old slave girl? Who is the one person, dead or alive, she would most like to spend one hour with? The Chronicles of…
Over forty years ago, I embarked on an incredible journey: digging up the roots of my family tree. It whisked me away to such remote places of the world as the quaint hamlet of Porlock on the southwest coast of England, where I found myself among pirates and smugglers. It dragged me through the bloody…
Two quotes by Hunter S. Thompson sum up my youth and my writing: “Truth is weirder than any fiction I’ve seen” and “It never got weird enough for me.” I was fascinated with people, but I quickly grew bored with ordinary life. I went off exploring other worlds: criminals, gangs, commies, Birchers, hippies, drug dealers,…
Nero played his fiddle while watching Rome burn, at least that is what I thought. I don’t know where I first heard that or from whom I heard it, but without bothering to check historical facts, I believed it. I thought of him as a monster. But this monster was once a sweet, adorable child…
Did you realize that fiction plays a big part in many of our Christmas traditions? No, I’m not talking about the birth of our Lord and Savior. His birth is not fictional, but many of the things now believed about that special event are; they have been set in place by poetry, books, movies, songs, etc. This is evidence of the effects that fiction writing can have on the world.
I recently finished my sixth draft of a new novel, which takes place in the Iraq war. I’m ready to show it to agents as I look for new representation. At the recent AWP Conference in Los Angeles, I attended a panel called “Agents on Agenting,” where afterward I asked Noah Ballard, an agent at…
Love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Jack and Marcie have known each other for most of their lives. They have fallen madly in love. How would their physical and mental actions show this? Ways Your Character Would React Physically When Jack and Marcie realized their feelings of friendship were turning into…
