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I've been wanting to do an event like this for a while, and I'm so excited it's finally happening. I'm leading two guided-writing sessions this summer out in the community with the Muse Writers Center in Norfolk. For each session, I'll share creative writing prompts to spark your imagination and get you started. Then, you'll follow those ideas and write whatever you want. There will be an open mic so you can share, if you want. It's free, it's fun, and it's open to everyone—w

Rudy and I finally place in a dog halloween costum contest (mostly!)

Happy #GotchaDay to #RudytheRudabaga

My coworker has been asking me to read Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices trilogy for quite some time. I tried her original...

If we think of this fight sequence as a complete story, we've reached the "Dark Night of the Soul," moment. Things have gotten as dark as they can get. Mustang and Havoc are down, presumably left for dead, and now the story shifts back to Barry, Alphonse and Riza. There's some brief (but important) set up for a future conflict for Alphonse. (This isn't important to the fight at hand, but it's important to the larger story, and remember these rules for good writing: set up, pa

Picking up where we left off . . . Mustang and Hawkeye head down the bell tower and find a car so they can meet up with Havoc and Barry....

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is not a perfect book. It is, however, a very good book, and damn if it didn't make me feel something....

When I teach workshops on creative writing, I try to reference stories most of my students will be familiar with. . . Star Wars. . ....

I recently taught a workshop on Creating Character Arcs, and in preparing for it, I threw myself deep into the craft of storytelling so much so that I forgot to consider some of the simple, beginner aspects of character arcs that new writers might not be familiar with. As my students began asking me questions, I realized I needed to take a step back and go over some of the basics. So I wanted to take a minute and write about a few misconceptions some of my students had about

I haven't been this excited about a movie in a long time. I guess Avengers: End Game was the last one. I went and saw it by myself at...