page contents Google

MORE FOOD? IT’S NOT A QUESTION

There’s more food on the table. Have another plate. If it’s Super Bowl Sunday you’ll ruin your team’s chances if you don’t gorge yourself. The barbecued little sausages won’t eat themselves. Grab a toothpick. Homemade Buffalo wings? Right there.

STORY BUILDING FROM THE BOTTOM UP

Story building is something you learn through trial and error? Or learn from graduate programs and writing conferences? Or reading? Lots of Reading? Don’t be shocked to think it’s all of that and more. But, where to start? Why not the beginning?

STORY MEDICINE AND THE CURE

Story medicine is what you see and hear. Think of it like going out for music: Is it, “Let’s get tickets and go see Taylor Swift?” Or, “Let’s get tickets to hear Taylor Swift?” It’s both. Around here we call that, “The Deuce.”

NEW ATTITUDE. WHAT HAPPENED? BARBIE

A new attitude comes after a close call: “Damn, we’re in a tight spot.” Or a long developing revelation: “Since systematic scientific assessments began in the 1970s, the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact.” So why not take a look at this new […]

NEW STORY PROBLEMS? CHANGE THE SETTING

New story problems are like cooking a chicken. You know how you’d like it to turn out, but that’s not how it always works. When it’s your Christmas story, and it’s December 24th, you’ve got work to do. Start with your story.

WRITING CLASSES? THE WRONG WRITING CLASS

Who has taken writing classes? Everyone who went to high school, went to college, or joined a writers’ group. It starts early and keeps going. By that standard, everyone is a writer? Yes, you are. Here’s why:

ALTERNATIVE FACTS FROM B TO Y

What is the first face you see when you hear Alternative Facts? Colonel Jessup in cover-up mode? Probably not. That’s Jack Nicholson acting up a storm, a furious storm, right before he found himself handled by guards and escorted to jail for his cover-up role. So where did alternative facts come from?

THANK A VETERAN, THEN BRACE YOURSELF

Everybody knows you can’t thank a veteran without a veteran story in return, so: I served in the medical community doing pre-physical work ups on my civil service patients in South Philadelphia. It was a remote clinic administered from the Army hospital in Fort Dix, New Jersey although there was a Navy hospital just up […]

LIFETIME MISTAKE TO CHANGE?

Have you made a lifetime mistake? Better yet, have you done it quietly so no one would notice? Good job. Now, since we’re all getting down the road with less lifetime in front than in back, in theory, you want to change, you want to fix that mistake. Good luck.

ATOMIC BOMB EDUCATION FOR THE KIDS

Atomic bomb work never ends at Los Alamos. That’s where the legends began and this is the museum that tells the story. The Bradbury Science Museum. Who doesn’t like a good science museum for family fun?