Do you feel you have to suffer for your art? The myth of the tortured artist has been around for a very, very long time. Hemingway struggled with alcohol abuse. Van Gogh suffered bouts of mania. Slyvia Plath tragically died…
How does character motivation affect a story’s plot?
How does character motivation affect a story’s plot? We’ve chatted before about creating compelling character arcs; to boil it down, you essentially have to design a series of events that is challenging and compels characters to change. Specifically, you need…
How to write a screenplay
How to write a screenplay When I first started writing screenplays, I felt like I’d entered a whole new world. I’d been writing novels for many years, but screenwriting came with its own set of standards, conventions, and expectations. I…
Celebrate the autumnal equinox as an artist
There are two equinoxes a year: one in the spring and one in autumn. Equinoxes are the two times of year when the Earth’s axis is upright, meaning there is almost an equal amount of daylight and darkness. The autumnal…
Film festivals in the southeast
I live in North Carolina, and sometimes when people find out I live here, they ask about the filmmaking opportunities. The truth is, there are lots of filmmakers who live in the southeast, and we’re great at making opportunities for…
Writing strong character arcs
One thing I used to struggle with in my writing was creating strong character arcs. I knew how to create interesting, compelling characters… but I didn’t know how to make them grow. Over time, I came to realize that this…
Writing grief in fiction
Grief is a universal emotion. Everyone experiences grief at some point in their life, and therefore it makes sense that many works of fiction explore the topic of grief. But how does one go about writing grief in fiction? Regardless…
