Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. Ronald E. Osborn Once upon a time a group of writers decided that they wanted to be more than writers. They wanted to come together as a group to give back to the community in which they lived, to …
“So you see, Good and Evil have the same face; it all depends on when they cross the path of each individual human being.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Devil and Miss Prym The ladies of the Chicken Scratch group have been having off-line discussions about writing craft and characters for a very long time. One of the most …
I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop where there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it. Ernest Hemingway If we read over Hemingway’s quote above it will seem, to most, like common …
Once upon a time there was an author who wrote an amazing story. The author was very pleased with his story, except that the ending didn’t quite give the audience all the information they wanted. He completed the story, and wrapped up the plot, but the audience wanted more. They wanted to know what happened …
Prologues precede the piece in mournful verse, As undertakers walk before the hearse. David Garrick Perhaps one of the greatest conundrums in all of writerdom is whether or not to include a prologue in your story. As Mr. Garrick said so eloquently above, the prologue is something past that precedes the story. Prologues are defined …
Writing to Market/Understanding your Genre/Finding your Niche Genre is a powerful but dangerous lens. It both clarifies and limits. The writer… must be careful not to see life merely in the stereotype with which he or she is most familiar but to look at life with the possibilities of the genre in mind. Donald M. …
Writers are often thought of as solitary creatures, living off cold coffee and stale donuts as they type furiously away on their new novel in the darkness of a leather-lined study. Though I think it might be true that authors tend to be solitary creatures, introverts who find more comfort in the pages of books …