Author: admin

Dairy Queen: A Response to Literature Tutorial

Dairy Queen: A Response to Literature Tutorial

Posted by | Nov 15, 2018 | , |

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock is one instance where you really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. It’s easy to find complaints about the book’s first impressions, but inside is a real and sometimes raw story of a fifteen year old girl from Red Bend Wisconsin who begins to see her life and her family in a different light. While readers will find many themes throughout the book, one of the predominant ones looks at  talking versus staying silent. D.J. comes from a family that doesn’t talk. They don’t talk about why D.J. has taken over all...

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Picture This

Picture This

Posted by | Nov 15, 2018 | |

Have you ever found yourself facing a blank page with no idea of what to write? Don’t. Before you fill up the page with words, try putting a picture in place, a picture that inspires that story you are looking to write. Not sure how to use a picture to write a story. These four simple steps will get you from once upon a time to happily ever after.   Start with a picture you find interesting. I like to keep a collection of pictures that inspire me to write. Some are creepy, like the one of an abandoned...

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Sparks are Flying

Sparks are Flying

Posted by | Nov 15, 2018 | , |

Whenever I teach fiction writing classes, I start by giving my students a blank notebook. I have them write “Sparks” on the front of the notebook and then go on to call it their spark books. I’m not a pyromaniac by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love that a spark of an idea can become an all consuming piece of writing. One little idea…that’s where professional authors start when they write bestsellers. One sentence, one word, and you can have inspiration like a waterfall. You see, that can be part of the problem when you get...

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