Hi Chris, In your post “Five Ways to Build Your Storytelling Muscles,” one of the things you suggest is analyzing the stories we consume. That sounds like excellent advice, but how do you focus on the analysis and avoid slipping back into passive consumption, especially if it’s a story you enjoy? Thanks Paul Hi Paul, […]| Mythcreants
What precipitates the creative process? For poet Mary Oliver, it’s the need to step over “the edge” into something vague …Continue reading →| Deborah J. Brasket, Author
Hey Mythcreants, I’ve loved your stuff for a while now; thank you for making it! I’m in a tough spot. I didn’t plan things this way, but one of my main characters has developed feelings for the other. They are the same gender, which isn’t a problem for me, but my family reads everything I […]| Mythcreants
Second readers may be your biggest fans, but they're also pickier the second time.| Mythcreants
I’ve seen a lot of praise for the placeholder in creative writing, and while I understand why writers would reach for it, I wonder if its potential drawbacks deserve more attention. I’m probably not alone in suspecting that clunky transitions between refined scenes were former placeholders and therefore were left for last with too many […]| Mythcreants
Hey there, The protagonist in my first-person, post-apocalyptic novel is obsessed with a collection of cult films that are in the underground bunker she grew up in. They shape her understanding of the pre-fallout world. When she leaves the bunker, she references these films constantly to fill in details about the remnants of culture she […]| Mythcreants
Switching to first person was a bigger change than I expected.| Mythcreants
Writing—or any creative endeavor—to some extent is a leap of faith and a huge personal risk: Faith that what you have to offer others will be worth the time it takes to read your work and will add …| Deborah J. Brasket
I heard Dance Monkey for the first time after watching the NYT analysis. My response was limited to “catchy and cool”. All my mentor texts are new to my ELLs and they read them for the …| moving writers
It’s been said that for the writer the blank page is our canvas and words our paint. But I don’t think so. Images and ideas are the paint, words the loaded brush, and sentences our brushstrokes. Th…| Deborah J. Brasket
CW: Largely personal musing, so look away now if autobiographical confessions are not your thing. It is not unusual to be struck by a feeling of sadness when you finish a book or a film, whether yo…| findingtimetowrite
On my computer, this book lives in a file called “the vegetable book,” but you’ll see it on the shelf as Eating From the Ground Up: Recipes for Simple, Perfect Vegetables. The book comes out on February 27 (!), so I wanted to share a few details about that here. Between now and then, Rosie...Read More »| Eating From the Ground Up
A few weeks ago, it fell to me to help to support a race. The store where I work was sponsoring the race by giving it a home and setting up a tent packed with fruit and water and energy bars, and I, along with 2 others, erected the tent and manned it through a Sunday morning. It...Read More »| Eating From the Ground Up
