When you sit down and write a short story, and it flows from your fingers as if your fingers are magic wands, writing is good. Often, when we tackle a new topic, a new character, and want something different, it can start well, but then the flow stems into a bottle neck of ideas that cause […]
The Thing that Happened to My Snooping Neighbour
Rustling paper, tearing, ripping, followed by the flop of a heavy envelope landing on my desk made me realise that I wasn’t really alone in my little room. I had just woken up. It was deepest winter and my whole body, including my head, was hidden under the Swedish quilt that was big enough to […]
The Happy Accident in Photography
The creative process can be a deceptive thing. Sometimes we end up with a happy accident that reflect exactly what we were looking for. The mind, well known for playing tricks on the eyes, can fool you into believing that what you are looking at is nothing but a pile of stone, a bunch of […]
How to Write Sizzling Scenes that Set Your Story on Fire
The whole story arc, the action, it’s characters, and its narrative, is an intertwined series of scenes that build the story. If a writer should focus on one thing only, when their story lags, they should turn their attention to what’s been happening in their scenes. A short story, or long story, has a beginning, […]
How to Write Short Stories
Stories are always like mysteries. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a story of love, crime, or the quest for hidden treasure, it starts with an idea that presents a question. The question comes early in the story, and it must be planted in the reader’s mind right from the start. The first page, the next, […]
The Creative Locus of Self-Control
The self is an ambiguous idea. It’s difficult to put your finger on it, to define it as anything particular. That’s because what we call the self, is an emotional body that is always acting and reacting to the environment. Self talk is often the way to define things. The words we use to define […]
How Hard is it to Become a Successful Writer?
“How hard is it to become a successful writer?”, is a common question. The answer is simple. Firstly, I think it’s a question posed in a very general way, which makes it hard to define really what a person means when they ask this question. “How hard is to…”, is a common question from people […]
How to Get into the Habit of Writing Every Day
Writing every day is an act of Creative Courage. You have to do something, at least, to motivate the creative mind into action. I write every day. This is the way I motivate my mind to become creative first thing in the morning. I get coffee, take my notepad and pen, and write one word that […]