Believable dialogue is one of the most important skills a fiction writer can learn. The speed and rhythm of a character’s speech tells a lot about their personality, the environment they grew up in and their education. It is essential to give your characters a believable voice to give them life. Like a musician who […]
When our daughter was born, some twenty-six years ago, she was placed in my arms and I began to float on air. I had the same experience almost six years later when our son was born. But that’s another story. It was my daughter’s very early childhood that led to the creation of Maggie MacCormack and the […]
When people say to me, “You have a great imagination”, it’s not always meant as a compliment. I remember many grade-school teachers commenting passive-aggressively when a student demonstrated a command of their imagination. “Oh, that’s very imaginative,” when really they wanted to ask, “Why did you have to do something so different?” I was stunned […]
People often ask me if I have a work routine. I like to think I don’t. However…I would say my work habits are flexible, but disciplined. My work schedule on one day may begin at 2 PM and end the next morning 3 o’clock. The next day, I might rise with an idea at 6 […]
The older I get, the more I try to simplify my life. If I’m writing, I ask myself if I can get to the point quicker and still be thought-provoking. And if I’m drawing, I ask myself if I can say it in fewer lines but achieve a fulsome, engaging picture. The more we learn, […]
Writers can get attached to their syntax and feel that their way of writing the world is better than possible alternatives, simply because that writing is theirs. Often that does not turn out to best serve the author’s work. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for a writer to foster a good relationship […]
How many writers have sat at their keyboard, or at a desk with a pad of paper, pen in hand, trying to figure out the story arc for their protagonist? For some of us it’s an easy task, for others it’s a brain cramping event. Yet, we need look no further than our own lives […]
I have seen and heard many people ask how they can get rid of writer’s block. Anyone who offers a definitive answer to that question is, in my opinion, the equivalent of a snake oil salesman, someone selling you a product to cure your ills that doesn’t work. Harsh? Perhaps. Are there some specific conditions […]
The most amazing prose will never be read if it’s presented in an unattractive, ill suited format. Lines of type crammed together into rectangular blocks that swallow up the gutters of the page and smother the writer’s intention are a bane of printed books. You could be another William Shakespeare, having just written another Hamlet. If […]
A man of wisdom once told me, “If you seek praise from the world, you will only find pain.” If an artist gets caught up in the pulpit of public opinion, upon which one person says they’re a genius, that their art, writing or music is otherworldly, while the next person calls them amateur, a […]
Musicians know this term well: “Develop your ear.” In its simplest form, it is the ability to hear what is going on inside of the music – it goes beyond just understanding the melody and the rhythm section. Musicians who develop this ability quickly mature and often take their playing to a higher level of […]
As I’ve grown older, raised children, and seen the social and political climate proceed towards increasing aggressive confrontation, my creative intentions have changed with it – or rather, against it. I’ve grown less interested in pushing audience boundaries with representations of violence and sex, and more interested in writing stories and making art that challenges […]
Sequential art, like jazz, is a language which expresses ideas and stir emotions. To communicate, comic books use shapes, symbols, signs and pictures – as well as the letters of the alphabet. Comic book syntax is a systematic, orderly arrangement of panels, composition, typography, illustration, design and economy of prose. Grids, used to form structural […]
Nearly 35 years ago I was reading a book on Sufism. The title of that book escapes me, but a line from it still resonates deeply: “Get used to being alone.” It’s a message that’s opposite from what the world tells us: have lots of friends, be social and cultivate deep, meaningful relationships. Yet, the […]
Artists fear rejection and doubt they’re abilities on almost a daily basis. We tend to compare ourselves to other artists and think, “I’ll never be as good as they are,” or “My art sucks. I can’t actually show this to anyone; what if people don’t get it?” Fear is ever present. It’s an endless source of unsolicited, unfavourable opinions […]
For a long time, if you told someone that you self-published your own book they looked at you like you had the plague. One or two friends may accept the copy you gifted them, but neither of them would ever read it. If you were unable to find an agent who could sell your manuscript […]
Maurice Sendak and his book Where The Wild Things Are hold a special place in my heart. It was the first children’s book by a writer and illustrator that spoke to me on a creatively spiritual level. It wasn’t the protagonist Max who won me over; it was the idea that with enough will and imagination I […]
I am not a fan of formula writing. I don’t like neat little bows tied at the end of stories, or stories where I can guess every reveal before the actual reveal. Neither do I enjoy stories that change course without warrant because the writer can’t keep their focus, or because the writer lacks a clear […]
I feel that in many forms of media, the features that make characters interesting, unique and multi-dimensional are being lost to anxieties about diversity and inclusion checklists. When it comes to the stories, people and cultures represented onscreen and in print, I am absolutely in favour of diversity. Diversity means difference. It suggests a robust variety of images […]
Lewis was an atheist whose friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien influenced him to embrace Christianity. Every so often one reads internet reports of the urge to make C. S. Lewis more “marketable” and less “hurtful” by expunging any Christian reference from his work or banning The Chronicles of Narnia from bookshelves. I enjoy The Chronicles of Narnia, […]
Rudyard Kipling is a beloved author and poet and at once, to some, a controversial figure. The author of the Jungle Book, and short stories like The Man Who Would Be King, Kipling’s work conjures up tales of exotic lands, mythic beasts and Britain’s colonial empire, specifically, perhaps, the footprint it pressed upon India. Today, a growing number […]
I miss Jim Henson. I miss his brand of creativity and I miss what he brought to the world of entertainment. I – who never knew the man himself – see Jim Henson’s work as singularly inspired and gentle. I felt that there was in it always an attempt to celebrate imagination, uphold quality entertainment […]
Every writer will tell you that every story needs conflict. The best stories have a strong villain and the most dramatic stories all need moments of levity. More experienced writers, though, will talk to you about the importance of friendship. Friendship is an opportunity for a writer to explore loyalty, love, and loss. Friendship unites […]
I often give workshops at public and private schools. I emphasize that everything is about telling a story and every story needs a good villain. When I ask if anyone can name a good villain, nine times out of ten I hear, “Darth Vader” or “The Wicked Witch.” Why? Because these are two clear examples […]