Case Study: The Mandalorian

Hi gang! Craig here with you today. Every once in a while I like to pick something apart for the sake of a writing study. I always use film because more people are likely to have seen what I’m discussing. I’ve never done this with a television series before, so we’ll see how it goes …

Surprise, it’s a case study

Hi Gang. Craig here again, breaking rules left and right. I’m surprising my colleagues today, because I’m supposed to pick apart a book cover. We have assignments on Fridays, and I don’t feel like it today. We can learn a lot from covers, but I think that knowledge is finite. We’ve talked before about the …

Opening in media res

Hi gang, Craig here again. In my last post, we went over the opening to your book. The nutshell explanation is to take it easy with the volume of characters, make the reader care, and introduce a problem. I wanted to include starting in what's called Media Res, but that's a bigger post. Now here …

Let’s Start a New Story

Let's start a story. In order to get the most out of this, I'm going to assume you already have an outline, or at least an idea of what you hope to accomplish. I'm also going to assume you've gone to the fictional character draft and picked a character or two with some upside. Finally, …

The Writer’s Toolbox

Craig here again, I know I'm a little bit out of order, but I didn't want us to be dark this week. Today I want to talk about pushing ourselves as writers. My regulars know that I include a personal challenge with everything I write. These can be simple, or complex, but I believe in …