Richard Thomas

Storyville: Unreliable Narrators

What is an unreliable narrator and how can it affect your writing?

Withholding: The Secret To Comedy Writing

Withholding gets a bad rap from lazy mysteries and lousy thrillers. But it's a great comedy writing tool.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: How to Write a Massive, Multi-Pronged Hook

If you think the only hook to your story or novel is the first line, then boy do I have some news for you.
Stephanie M. Wytovich, MFA

The Sound of Absence: Utilizing White Space in Poetry

This essay explores how white space can be used in poetry as a literary device that thrives on the power of absence.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Body, Mind, and Soul—Adding Depth to Your Stories

Using the concept of body, mind, and soul, you can create a deeper experience with your stories.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Foreshadowing in Fiction—How to Set the Stage

Tips on how to use foreshadowing to write layered stories with powerful emotion.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Advanced Storytelling Techniques

Tips for how to execute some advanced storytelling techniques.

Clarity vs. Experimentation: A Letter To Myself

Does your work have a worthwhile story underneath the experiment? In other words, are you going to pay off the work a reader does to understand what’s going on?
Chuck Palahniuk

One Word Leads To The Next: Unconventional Conjunctive Devices

An essay that explores unconventional conjunctive devices and how they can link a story together, making it more like a song or piece of music.
Chuck Palahniuk

The Haunting: How To Conquer The Shame Of Being A Writer

An essay about why the vocation of writing can sometimes feel shameful, and how to own that shame and then eventually conquer it.
Chuck Palahniuk

Consider This: Undecidability

Chuck Palahniuk talks about the unresolved, and how undecidability is always more scary than simply being told the answer.
Chuck Palahniuk

Consider This: Coping

In this first of a series of new craft essays, Chuck Palahniuk displays a method for helping your characters cope against dramatic situations. He also delves into the language of singing, mantras and the importance of a good scream.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Dissecting "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

One of the most talked about, published and taught stories, I dissect "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: 15 Unconventional Story Methods

Here are 15 unconventional methods of telling a story. Why not stretch yourself?
Rob Hart

Top 10 Storytelling Cliches Writers Need To Stop Using

There are certain storytelling clichés writers go back to again and again. And they shouldn't. Because they are terrible, and they need to be destroyed.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Narrative Hooks

Writing a great narrative hook isn't easy, but it's one way to grab your audience and never let them go.
Jon Gingerich

The Myth of Writer’s Block

An understanding of how the human mind operates proves that a temporary lack of creative ideas is not the result of “writer's block,” but the result of something else entirely.