Locate Your Obsessions

I always tell students, when I teach writing, to locate their obsessions, and look to them when they’re searching for the story they should be telling. When a writer attaches her work to the engine of what she cares about most passionately (even irrationally, perhaps) the work will be infused with a similar passion, I believe. And come into being most organically.

Joyce Maynard

Testing Morning Pages

I recently came across the tool called Morning Pages. I have been struggling with getting myself to write, and to tap into a deeper, creative potential.

8 Terrific Writer Forums

I like connecting with other like-minded writers to hear their experiences and get feedback on my work. Making the time to get to a writing group on a regular basis is hard to schedule, but tapping into online writing forums is a great alternative. Here are 8 terrific writer forums that I have compiled, and visit.

Free Write: Rowboat

I call this a faux mafia story. I saw a writing challenge recently to  make a script that's festival sized (5 to 12 pages), where the main prop accessible is this neat rowboat. So I started tossing around ideas for a story in a rowboat, and the image came into my mind of that scene at the end of Godfather II, where Freddy is taken out on the lake with the hitman to get his punishment. As I played around with that scene, I thought 'What if that scene played off differently?'

Failure and Creativity

A fascinating infographic looking at the creative process.

8 Cool Ways to Stoke Your Creative Juices

A great post over at nofilm school explores some traditional and less orthodox approaches to stir up your innate creative juices and get out great storytelling elements.

Check out this article 8 Somewhat Unusual Screenwriting Tips That May Help Kickstart and Maintain Your Creativity

• Freewrite
• Get a journal and make it your own
• Take your characters to lunch
• Talk to yourself
• Do bizarre things that make you embarrassed of yourself
• Become a voyeur
• Be your characters
• Take time to just marinate