Category: Creative Writing
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Thoughts on freedom: dreaming of no day job
Yesterday I wrote of the role patience plays in creative writing, and how creative writing builds that virtue. Further reflection has me realizing how much I am yearning to be able to leave my day job behind and concentrate professionally on my fiction. Like all writers, I am a creative type. A dreamer. Head in…
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Creative writing teaches patience
Patience is definitely one of the virtues I need to work on, though I certainly hope I have developed some other virtues to a greater degree. (Courage, too. I need to work on courage. I am a melancholic). As I return to creative writing, though, I’ve realized just how much my fiction is doing to…
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When friends return (in life and in fiction)
I found out recently that one of my best work friends, who left earlier this year, will be returning. She texted me to let me know, and I was just SO excited. I can’t wait to have her back. I always felt comfortable sharing my concerns, triumphs, and frustrations with her because we were similar…
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Character development in “Les Miserables”
Yesterday I wrote about how I didn’t like The Sun Also Rises because the whole point of the novel is the LACK of growth and moral development in the characters. That’s really important to me! I’m in it for the characters. Who are they as people? What are their goals and purpose in life? What…
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Why I didn’t like “The Sun Also Rises”
Recently, I wrote about the challenges that we as authors present our characters with. I talked about how it’s important to bring them face to face with the challenges they need, even if those are not the challenges they want. Reflecting on how facing challenges makes us (and our characters) grow reminded me of the…
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Two things religious life taught me about creative writing
I am a practicing Catholic and was blessed to spend nine months in religious formation. I decided in the end that it was not my vocation, long before taking vows or even taking the habit, but as I return to creative writing after leaving, I’ve realized there are lessons to take from religious life and…
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The challenges we need
Fiction can fall flat for all kinds of reason. One major factor in such a failure can be that we’re getting plot wrong, as the writer, because we aren’t giving our characters the challenges they NEED to grow and develop. As human beings, I think that acknowledging that we grow only through challenge–that is discomfort,…
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Soundtrack to fiction
I don’t know how common this is among writers, but I imagine I’m not alone in linking music to my characters, to their relationships, and to particular scenes in my fantasy trilogy I’m hoping to re-release in a second edition next year. There are so many different associations. When I was in grad school studying…
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“Clue! The Movie,” a JFK documentary, and multiple possible endings
I just watched a cool documentary about the JFK assassination called “Frame 313” (a reference to the infamous Zapruder film.) What I liked about it is that it presents the evidence for and against 5 plausible theories to explain the Kennedy assassination. Was it Oswald acting alone? Was there CIA involvement? Was it a mob…
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Write what you WANT to know
It’s common advice to writers to “write what you know,” and that’s for a reason. What you know is where you have to start. It’s what you have. It’s a springboard to launch into plot and to make characters’ reactions to plot developments ring true. It can make writing therapeutic, among other things. But is…
Creative Writing with the Crimson League 