creative thinking Archives -

5 Ways to Stop Hating Your Story

April 27, 2023
Student Contributor
Guest posts, Stuck? Discouraged?, Writing Tips and Tools
0 Comments

By Lauryn Trimmer, Student Contributor Maybe you’re two-thirds of the way through your novel… and you hate it. Or you’re almost finished with the rough draft, but it feels like everyone else wrote a better story than yours. You wish…

Creating Characters That Are Uniquely Yours

January 16, 2023
Student Contributor
Help with Characters, Push Your Imagination, Writing Tips and Tools
2 Comments

By Megan Mestel, Student Contributor Have you ever found yourself staring at your newest character you’ve created and can’t shake the feeling that you’ve seen them somewhere else before? No, I’m not talking about that one guy you saw at…

Writing Characters When You Don’t Hear Voices in Your Head

December 16, 2015
Student Contributor
Guest posts, Help with Characters, Writing Tips and Tools
2 Comments

Miguel Flores, Guest Contributor People have told me their characters “talk” to them. These fictional characters use our brains as home base but are otherwise free to explore both their world and ours. When these vagabond ghost squatters re-enter our brains, they kick up their feet, scatter our neatly organized plot bunnies, and babble about their lives or rudely commentate on ours.

9 Ways to Encourage Creativity in Your Kids

February 13, 2014
Student Contributor
Homeschooling, Parenting a Young Writer, Push Your Imagination, The Writing Life, Writing Tips and Tools
1 Comment

Lisa Pennington, Guest Contributor Lisa Pennington, of The Pennington Point, is mom to several OYAN students—among them J. Grace Pennington whose guest post we featured last week. The Penningtons are such a creative group, we asked Lisa for pointers for cultivating creativity in our homes.

Does Your Creativity Have to Grow Up?

November 28, 2013
Staff Writer
Parenting a Young Writer, Push Your Imagination, The Writing Life, Writing Tips and Tools
2 Comments

Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer Life throws many changes at us. They threaten an end to our creative ambitions. Whether it’s a job with no wiggle room for ideas, so much college homework you’re worried you’ll lose your love of reading, or a new life role (marriage, parenthood, anyone?), change has a way of making us feel like a naive idiot for calling ourselves a writer, an artist, an adventurer.