Choose an old object from your home. If you don’t have any, find a picture of an antique online. Imagine that when you touch the object, you are transported to its original time and place. *Where are you? *What happens? *How do you interact with the object? Write about it! For more on writing historical...Read More

Practice Makes Perfect: How journaling helps the writing process Guest Post by Debra Brenegan One requirement I have for students of my Introduction to Creative Writing Courses: Keep a journal. My students need to write a minimum of two full pages a week for the 15 weeks we are in class together. What do they...Read More

Your dreams can be a rich source of stories, images, metaphors, and sensory details for your writing. Jacquelyn Mitchard’s novel The Deep End of the Ocean and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight both began with the authors’ dreams. You, too, can use your dreams to spark a new story or give an existing story new life. Dream...Read More

In yesterday’s blog post, I wrote about one of my favorite writing books, If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland. Every Tuesday, all summer long, I’ll be blogging about the lessons I’ve learned from reading about writing. (If you want to get these lessons in your inbox, you can subscribe to the blog or sign...Read More

As a reader, I often get bored by long descriptions of  place. After pages of flowery language about the shape of the topography or the decorative style of a house, I will scream at my book: enough already! Still, in the best novels, the setting supports the story in an integral way. When I recall...Read More