ChatGPT is all over the news these days, and as a creative writer, I was freaked out by it. I got a sick, fearful feeling that ChatGPT will replace human creativity—my creativity. It’s hard enough to find an audience without a tsunami of crap, written instantaneously for free by a robot, crashing over the marketplace […]
Freaking out about ChatGPT Read More »
What if you don’t want to start your story at the beginning? Join Kim Kessler and me for a discussion of stories with nonlinear timelines.
Past and Present 1: Telling your story out of order Read More »
Every scene requires change, and every change must be incited by something that flows from the previous scene. If your character is just coasting along on the momentum of a previous inciting incident, it’s not a new scene, it’s just a scene that needs some cutting.
Inciting Incidents Read More »
For someone who’s been writing for five decades, it’s weird that I just learned how.
Anne Learns to Write Read More »
Let me tell you about first drafts. Well, my first drafts. Or at least this particular first draft. It’s a mess. It feels like a hopeless mess.
The Slow Grind of a First Draft Read More »
I examine the internal roadblocks to completing my draft of the Brokeback Mountain inspired story, and try to get going again.
How’s that Brokeback Mountain ripoff coming, anyway? Read More »
If you don’t know what your characters want and need, how are you going to move them through a story?
The Masterwork Experiment podcast concludes with today’s recording. Here’s what I’ve learned.
Preparing for Episode 10 Read More »
In this episode Shawn and I spend some talking about the two characters I’ve already begun to define for Danebury Hill: Matthew the footman and Josiah the groom. I argued for giving my characters more of a happy ending, partly because I want to solve the puzzle of how two servant class men in the
Masterwork Experiment 3: Defining the Characters Read More »
In this episode, I ace the “Beginning Hook, Middle Build, Ending Payoff” summary of Brokeback Mountain, though not without a few tears in my voice, because damn, that story is sad. There’s a huge temptation, in working with someone as accomplished as Shawn Coyne, to play the Good Student and try to get an A
Masterwork Experiment Episode 2 Read More »
