Character Profile: Deacon Carver
As part of a writing course I was recently taking, we were asked to develop some character profiles.
Creativity, writer's life, Writing
Creativity, writer's life, Writing
Writing Assignment: The Bear Necessities
One of the interesting weeks we had in my writing course was where we had to deconstruct then rebuild a famous story, in this case, Frankenstein. I decided early on that my version would have Elizabeth Lavenza (Victor von Frankenstein’s fiancé) as the hero, and that the story would involve nanotechnology.
Creativity, writer's life, Writing
Writing Assignment: Rethink the Trope
Writing is often filled with tropes – preconceived ideas that both the writer and the reader bring to the story. For this assignment we were asked to redefine a fairy tale trope of our choice. I chose trolls.
Creativity, writer's life, Writing
Writing Assignment: Rewrite A Scene
For a creative writing class, I was taking, we had to write a 500-word scene from The Catcher in the Rye demonstrating a specific perspective of our choice. I chose to do third person limited from D.B.’s perspective.
Creativity, writer's life, Writing
Thinning the Plot: AKA Killing Your Darlings
I want to explain about extraneous plot, and how I’m trimming a big chunk out of the last third of a novel to make the story flow better. There’s also consequences to the characters by doing it.
Creativity, writer's life, Writing
Writing Challenge: Write a Story in 100 Words
My first actual paid stories were six 100-word stories (often called “drabbles”) in 2016. I was paid US$5 for each. It was a big shot of validation early in my career.
Creativity, Writing
Writing Assignment: 1st Person Short Story
One of our assignments in my first writing course was to write in a voice you don’t usually use (first person versus third). This was my entry.
Creativity, Shakespeare, Writing
Recontextulizing Romeo
I think there’s an opportunity to give Romeo and Juliet a very satisfying twist. Think on this: How does Romeo’s time alone in Mantua challenge his feelings for Juliet?
Creativity, Science Fiction, Writing
Writing Assignment (Unsubmitted): The Dilettante, 1982
During my first writing course, I wrote four different stories for the final assignment. We could only submit one. This is one of the ones I chose not to submit.
Creativity, Science Fiction, writer's life, Writing
Kill Your Darlings: There Goes A Whole Theme
One theme I wanted to explore in the first Deacon Carver book was how bureaucracy weighs down organizations. One of my key scenes for demonstrating that was in Deacon’s onboarding process, where he confronts the concept of “cost-to-company.”