Category: The Writing Life

Every story has a plot. If it doesn’t have a plot, it isn’t a story. It might be something else, but it isn’t a story.

What is story structure? Story structure is the framework that allows a specific story to unfold. To create a good structure, we must start out

After reading Robert McKee and his work on storytelling I wanted to share some of his insights into what makes a story and what a

Searching for the right literary agent is one of the most stressful and overwhelming parts of book publishing. All those rejections and putting your work

When writing a book or even a shorter length piece like an essay it is useful to consider working with an editor. But where to

Some days it’s hard to get the creative juices flowing. Words seem boring and everything you write feels useless. On those days, it helps to

Writing memoir is challenging enough but conveying emotion is one of the more difficult things to do. Emotion is felt in the body. To convey

A beginning, a middle, and an end. This seems obvious that all stories are made up of these three parts. It is fundamental though to

The challenge for artists of all stripes is to manage the creative impulse with the expectations of others. The musician needs an audience, the chef

The punch list is typically used as a construction term that highlights remaining work or issues on a project that have to be corrected before

Memoir is the art of remembering and retelling, to shape memory into universal truths. This requires a lot of rearranging and organizing the information of

What is the setting of a story? Setting is where the story takes place. It is the location such as a city, the countryside, the