Once upon a time, long before bookstores put out comfy chairs and adjoining coffee shops to tempt patrons into lingering even longer, there was the mall bookstore and it was staffed by the elderly wives of blood-thirsty trolls and horn-sprouting ogres–women whose sisters were no doubt employed by Hallmark card shops everywhere.
These are strange days we are living in. On the one hand, we’ve got Hollywood preaching morality with the #metoo and The Time’s Up movements. ‘On the other, Kim Kardashian is trying to break the internet by tweeting pictures of her exposed breasts as well as her giant naked ass (no, not Kanye–I’m speaking of … More Of Scandals, Scarlet Letters, and the Not-So-Banal-Anal
With spring on the horizon, time to get a spring back in your writing step. Here are three prompts for freewriting. Maybe one will rejuvenate you, or help you launch a new story. Remember, no editing. No inner critic. Just balls to the wall. Let your freak flag fly.
Story. Something so simple that a child could give a simple definition when asked. Andyet, as writers we grapple to pin it down. Literary novelists may argue story is character-driven. Genre novelists may argue that plot is story and story is plot. Period. And then there’s the importance of language and wordplay–prose that reads like … More What is the Nature of Story?
Anyone who listens to classic rock music knows there’s a Highway to Hell and a Stairway to Heaven. We know Van Halen is Runnin with the Devil. The Stones have Sympathy for the Devil. The Dead are a Friend of the Devil. And, according to Charlie Daniels, The Devil Went Down to Georgia. It seems hell is … More Ice-Cold, Lukewarm or On Fire?
