Your Opening Image and Page One
As in the movies, the ideal opening image for novels and short fiction will be resonant and unique. Or, as a perspicacious agent once said […]
Articles by Melanie Anastasiou
One Aspect of Pace in Storytelling: The Morian Pause
Sometimes we writers sense, despite careful plotting, that not enough is happening, when really what’s wanted is a pause. Best selling Sci-fi author Kathy Tyers calls these pauses moments […]
Storytelling Power
Editorial revisions will almost certainly be necessary for every story, but we’ll be wise to approach editorial, whether paid or unpaid, from a position of […]
Taking the Next Step in a Writing Career
Goals get us up in the morning. Before we rise, before the business of the world we’ve created takes over our day, we can remember […]
Success, While You Wait
Sometimes it may seem as though success is a very slow mover. We know our book is good. We shop it here and there, without […]
Forging a Writing Future
If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your […]
How Walking Helps Writing
The New Yorker’s article Why Walking Helps Us Think sends a very clear message to writers. Walking helps our brains. We have never had much doubt movement helps our […]
Creating Writing Time
When we’re designing our ideal writing lives within our everyday lives, it’s well to tailor them to our own rhythms, but it’s also worth challenging […]
Dark of Night Thoughts
From time to time a buzzing mosquito of a thought comes to us, perhaps in the middle of the night: There are so many books […]
What if You Caught Some Zzzs, F. Scott Fitzgerald?
The archetypical swan-pale writer taps out chapters through the night, whiskey at hand, refusing food and slumber. It makes you wonder how much more Fitzgerald […]