Sometimes I want to make it seem like a character might die — but hey, guess what! She makes it! A lot of fiction writers, especially those who write fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, and Westerns, like to write about surviving almost fatal injuries. Pin or bookmark this post for future reference if you like this kind of plot point! I will

Here was my idea for a fun blog post: I would avoid saying anything that was at all negative for 30 days and report what I had learned. After dozens of attempts, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will never write that blog post, so I’m writing this one instead.   I wanted to try this experiment for

These summer writing prompts are appropriate for all ages… Because I know a lot of teachers are looking forward to the summer…along with a lot of students, and a lot of writers. In my mind, the season inspires a lot of good creative writing topics, and it wasn’t hard to come up with this list! If you’d like creative writing

Last week the creative division at my company had a fantastic symposium. All day, we heard impressive visiting speakers from many fields talk about belief and purpose in one’s work. The event took place at the gorgeous Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. (PS: look how pretty, you should move to Kansas City, everything here is amazing. Here is the outside:

Last week a commenter on my blog asked a question about how to research a setting you don’t know well — or one you’ve never been to at all. I had been thinking about this very thing lately! Fantasy and science fiction writers have to go to the trouble of inventing a whole new world, but unless they have inconsistencies,