Here you’ll find some of the craft and writing tips that have been shared over my years of editing and teaching writing.
Writing Plot Tip #3
Writing tip all about plot and stakes & tension. Got arc?
Writing Plot Tip #2
In this 4 1/2-minute video, Alida describes the relationship between story structure and plot. How can understanding structure help you craft your story's plot? What are your biggest questions about crafting plot? Leave a comment below. I'd love your input!
Writing Plot Tip #1
In this 3-minute video, Alida talks about what plot is and one thing you can - um...should - do at the beginning of your plot's development to smooth the road ahead. You know, that road of rising action that excites the reader all the way to the climax?What are your...
An Audience of None
One’s journal is a sanctuary, a space wherein a writer can simply self-express. Its unassuming blankness offers a container for philosophizing, ranting, sentimentalizing, weeping, and creating. It is a repository of one’s truth, if not always of fact. The...
Do Breaks Break Your Story?
I’ve had more trips than usual this past summer and as things wound down, I’ve had time to reflect on the value of taking breaks. When a project is going—well or not—it’s advisable to carry on, full steam and all that. But there is a time to take a break....
Writing as a Priority
Priorities are a way to set guideposts for a life well-lived.That’s well-lived personally defined. Writing is my declared priority; therefore, I had better be writing no matter the kind of life I’m having. Yet it is sometimes difficult to live up to that declared...
Life Experience – is it a prerequisite to writing?
How much life experience do you need to be a writer? Familiar with the assertion that life experience is crucial to being a good writer? I’ve been wondering recently how much and in what ways this is true. Life experience? And yet, despite...
Ruminations on Writing as a Practice
Writing for me is a practice. I mean practice in the same way people use the word when talking about meditation. It hasn’t always been this for me. Originally, I wrote for fun, because I couldn’t help myself. Telling stories to and for myself was my...
Crescendo!
https://youtu.be/-YHeWAgskN8 I explain the importance of the crescendo in your story’s structure. Whether writing an action scene or an emotion-driven one, you need to make sure the movement rises…and rises!
Flash Tip: A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words
https://youtu.be/B9Uz0XfQmaM Alida shows you why a picture is worth 1000 words in this week's flash tip. Tips are taking the rest of the year off so I can spend more time enjoying the holidays. See you in 2018!
I'm Alida
I help people express their gifts to the world.
I do not believe in formulas. I believe that the stories we are compelled to tell the world make demands on us, and it is our privilege to meet those demands in order to reach the most people in the most authentic and compelling way possible.
