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Writing

A collection of 23 posts

Giving Effective Feedback to Creative Writers
Feedback

Giving Effective Feedback to Creative Writers

Your writing partner has asked for some feedback on her novel. Now what?

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
5 min read
Rainy Writing Day Adventure
Activity

Rainy Writing Day Adventure

We stood around like loons scribbling in our notebooks and scrutinizing the piece of art for about 20 minutes.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
4 min read
Theme Queen
Effective Story Telling

Theme Queen

Having a deep connection to a theme is one reason a reader can’t set that perfect book down.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
That Pivotal Moment
Effective Story Telling

That Pivotal Moment

Thank goodness Bilbo ran after the Dwarves and Lucy explored that wardrobe. Otherwise, we would spend hundreds of pages just watching Bilbo eat and some bored kids waiting out WWII in the countryside.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
2 min read
I’m Conflicted
Character Development

I’m Conflicted

These conflicts inside the heads of your characters are not just there for window dressing. They serve a structural purpose in your storytelling.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
Whose Story Is It?
Point of View

Whose Story Is It?

The values, goals, and information known by the storyteller influence their narrative.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
Urban Fantasy
Genre

Urban Fantasy

Even supernatural beings must cope with problems like lead paint and aging transportation infrastructure.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
4 min read
Magical Realism
Genre

Magical Realism

Within the bounds of this genre, I discovered a specialized candy shop of ideas: Glass jars brimming with bright gumballs of fabulism, boiled sweets of the marvelous real, sugar whorls of the baroque, lollipops of Latin literary forms, and caramel creams of German art critique.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
Basking in the Glow
Accomplish

Basking in the Glow

I wrote 50k words in a month.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
2 min read
Brainstorm Forcasted
Technical Skills

Brainstorm Forcasted

I used the affinity diagram to help me think through the implications of my protagonist’s socially isolated upbringing.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
4 min read
Panning for Gold
Personal Effectiveness

Panning for Gold

Waste is my sworn enemy. There has to be a way to work smarter than this!

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
2 min read
Oh no — NaNoWriMo!
Writing

Oh no — NaNoWriMo!

I have officially lost my mind.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
2 min read
To Infinitives and Beyond
Technical Skills

To Infinitives and Beyond

Being mindful with our use of infinitives and gerunds can help us better underscore the mood and feeling of our writing.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
2 min read
Because I Told You So
Technical Skills

Because I Told You So

Instead of whispering our narrative into the reader’s ear, let’s transport them into the middle of the action and allow them to directly experience the story.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
2 min read
Digging Out
Writing

Digging Out

In Walden, Thoreau talks about the wells of our creativity filling in with silt as we age, and over the last year, I have been digging out.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
With a Little Help from My Friends
Writing

With a Little Help from My Friends

We can’t get out of our own heads and the diverse outside perspectives of others crack the eggs we forgot to scramble.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
2 min read
Real People in a Small World
world-building

Real People in a Small World

It’s terrible to imagine so much sorrow crammed into such a small village. The despair must have been inescapable.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
Nine White Coffins
Research

Nine White Coffins

The colors of mourning, symbolizing innocence and purity, were an unrelenting white.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
5 min read
Cincinnati Ghost Stories
Research

Cincinnati Ghost Stories

The cacophony of 30 girls 12 feet down a sewage vault screaming for help....

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
Cause and Effect
world-building

Cause and Effect

Like the ripples in a pond disturbed by a stone, each rule we set down for our fictional world pushes out a series of consequences.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
A Recipe for Character
Writing

A Recipe for Character

They are silly, sometimes wrong, bickering, and earnest human beings. How they say something and interact is more interesting than the ostensible topic at hand.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
Story Telling without Words
Effective Story Telling

Story Telling without Words

What are the images you see and the sounds you hear communicating to you?

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
1 min read
Best Places to Write in Cincinnati
Productivity

Best Places to Write in Cincinnati

Because we are all moody humans whose needs can change with the barometric pressure, we all need to get out sometimes.

  • Amy Diane Short
    Amy Diane Short
3 min read
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