It cannot be denied that females are underrepresented as main characters in the world of mainstream stories. Can we understand and fix that? You...
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Profiling Your Characters
Putting together detailed profiles of your characters can help bring them to life in your writing mind, but doing so takes time and effort—which...
Stories from Aphorisms | Fashionable Belief
Aphorisms are especially well-suited to generating story ideas, because they often contain recommended approaches or courses of action that serve as...
Finding Stories in the I Ching
The I Ching ("Book of Change"), is an original Chinese classic the origin of which may lie as far back as 3,000 BCE. Is it a source of wisdom?...
The Difference Between a Story and a Tale
Subtle differences exist between a "story" and a "tale." And although neither is inherently superior to the other, the differences do matter and can...
Finding Theme in the Inciting Incident
Considering the importance of theme to a story, it behooves you to practice finding its hiding places and identifying its species—not to coax it...
Noontime in the Garden of Characters
When you get the idea for a story, characters may come calling in droves, begging to be let in and put to work. The question is: How do you identify...
Stories from Idioms | Numbers
Some idioms contain a quality or value that can provide an easily extractable basis for a story theme. But even those that are merely descriptors...
Stories from Lyrics | Awareness
Song lyrics vary in the ease with which they can be used to generate stories. Some convey a pre-packaged tale; others contain mere kernels of...
A Tale of Two Thomases
When looking for clues about what makes a story work, it can be very instructive to compare and contrast two versions of a given story—especially if...