Impossible Choices (How to Make Readers Think)
Thought-provoking stories don’t just make us wonder whether the characters are going to learn their lesson. They push us to pursue truth by putting us in situations where WE don’t yet have the answers.
As an author, the best way to do this is by forcing your characters to confront dilemmas where every option comes with a devastating cost.
How to Make Readers Think: Introduction
There’s something deeply satisfying about a story worth chewing on. As much as we appreciate a great story’s offer of an escape, we also hunger for meaning to follow us back into real life and transform the way we see the world.
The Power of Small Moments: The Little Things that Make a Life
When we remember our favorite stories, we often think first of the climactic battles, traumatic events in the backstory, and world-rocking inciting incidents. But often, the scenes that resonate with us most—the turning points that make those climaxes possible, the...
Longing & Curiosity
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a story of discovery because it is a story of desire. Longing is the wind that fills the story’s sails and drives the characters to the destinations along their individual journeys. Lost in a world he had no control over, Eustace...
Reepicheep: On Embracing Adventure
“This is a very great adventure, and no danger seems to me so great as that of knowing when I get back to Narnia that I left a mystery behind me through fear.” Reepicheep – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S Lewis What do you do when you wake up to a dragon...
The Awakening of Eustace: Part IV
When the dragon Eustace came to the well, he thought the water would soothe his pain. The Lion had something much bigger in mind. For a moment Eustace was puzzled. How was he to undress? Then he KNEW. He knew about animals with scales and how they shed them. His...
I’m a fiction editor and writing coach with a passion for excellent stories and the people who write them.
I believe that well-crafted storytelling has the power to make a difference in the hearts and minds of readers.
I know it’s made a difference in mine.