Improve your writing and learn to perform.

Two weeks ago I did something most writers feel very uncomfortable about. I did too at first.

I left the comfort of my sweatpants, my bedroom and just me and my screen alone. Writing is ideal for introverts. And although I consider myself a social introvert, I went way out of my comfort zone…

8 Reasons why writing makes you a better human being.

“Writing is hard, but the more you write, and enjoy what you write, the better it gets.”— Alice Munro

The 10 steps I’m using to outline my fantasy novel

“The essence of plot structure is: struggle — therefore, conflict — therefore, climax. A struggle implies two opposing forces in conflict, and it implies a climax. The climax is the central point of the story, where the conflict is resolved.” — Ayn Rand

“As a writer you’re creating this illusion.” – Brandon Sanderson.

Why characters, plot, setting, and conflict determine the success of your fantasy story

“Simply put, a story is a character arc – a personality making a progression from an emotional or psychological Point A to an emotional or psychological Point B. Story is all about internal growth, not external events. It’s a character’s struggle to shed old behaviors or beliefs that have held him back from becoming his “true self” – the person he was always ‘meant to be’.” – Libbie Hawker

“If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.” – Ernest Hemingway

Publish your writing in as many places as humanly possible and do as many different types of writing as well. A stand up comic doesn’t build an audience performing at home-they go anywhere there is a mic. Same with writers. - Ryan Holiday

Part 16 in How to Write a Short Story.

“Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea. Some bottles drown, some come safe to land, where the notes are read and then possibly cherished, or else misinterpreted, or else understood all too well by those who hate the message. You never know who your readers might be.” ― Margaret Atwood

Part 15 in How to Write a Short Story.

“What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?” Then finish with these final two questions: ‘Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?’” — George Orwell

Part 14 in How to Write a Short Story.

“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” - Stephen King

Part 13 in How to Write a Short Story.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle 

Part 12 in How to Write a Short Story.

How Their Wisdom Can Ignite Your Creative Flame.

“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.” - Neil Gaiman

“Drama is the way of holding the reader's attention. The basic formula for drama is setup, buildup, payoff - just like a joke. The setup tells us what the game is. The buildup is where you put in all the moves, the forward motion, where you get all the meat off the turkey. The payoff answers the question, Why are we here anyway? What is it that you've been trying to give?” - Anne Lamott

Part 10 in How to Write a Short Story.

“Worldbuilding touches all aspects of your story. It touches plot and character as well. If you don't know the culture your character comes from, how can you know what he's really like? You must know your characters on a much deeper level than you would if you just shrugged your way into a cookie cutter fantasy world.” - Patrick Rothfuss

Part 9 in How to Write a Short Story.

The Essential Elements of Character Building. Part 8 in How to Write a Short Story.

“What does your character want, what is his dream, what shape has it, and how expressed? Given expression, this is the dynamo of his life, and your life, then, as Creator.” - Ray Bradbury

Finding Your Voice and Writing Viewpoint. Part 7 in How to Write a Short Story.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut… If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.” —Stephen King

4 Tools to help structure your story. Part 6 in How to Write a Short Story.

“Prose is architecture. It’s not interior design.” - Ernest Hemingway