How to Climb the Face of Your Writing Future
By Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer:
If you are shaken by the loss of your earlier confidence and joy in writing, please don’t make the mistake of concluding you just don’t have it in you after all.
Framing Your Writer’s Future
Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer
As a parent, you field these well-meaning but bewildering questions from relatives and friends. They make you anxious, defensive. All the while, you ache for your son or daughter as they wrestle with their own questions, and there’s no way for you to hand them the answers.
Hearing the Questions Beneath Your Writer’s Frustration
Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer:
Watching your young writer agonize over writer’s block, or whether their story idea is good enough, can be heartbreaking. Don’t you wish you could get inside your son’s head and change his perspective? Don’t you long to say the right thing—something irrefutable—when your daughter rages that none of your encouraging words are true?
10 Great Creative Nonfiction Books
Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer
If creative nonfiction (CNF) is a real genre, why don’t most of us know what it is?
When I tell people that CNF is nonfiction that uses all the tools of fiction—extended metaphor, symbolism, plot structure, etc.—I always feel frustration.
How to Write a Personal Story So It Matters to More Than You
Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer
Today we look at another short form: nonfiction short stories. Tineke, the OYAN team’s creative nonfiction enthusiast, shares some tips on writing personal essays, anecdotes, and blog posts.
Practical Steps to a Rewarding Fantasy Map
Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer
How do we make our story world maps the best they can be? After tackling intimidation, and coming to terms with the risks we take by not actually drawing our fictional world, how do we actually make the map?
How a Map Can Save Your Story
Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer
In last week’s post we tackled the intimidation many of us feel about creating a map for our novels. (Thanks, no thanks, J. R. R. Tolkien.) This week we focus on why we can’t afford to give up the dream or hand off the project to someone else.
Do What Tolkien Did (But Not What You Think He Did)
Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer
Some thoughts on why we writers are often intimidated by fantasy maps
The Burden of Purpose – When You’re Haunted by Your Creative Gift
Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer
Deep down, I am haunted by my creative abilities. Haunted by the question, “Could I do more, if I were only brave enough to take bigger creative risks?”
Does Your Creativity Have to Grow Up?
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.