My discounted year of Masterclass ends tomorrow. Since I’m not going to renew, I’ve been watching as many videos on writing and creativity as I can fit into my day. For the most part, I’ve watched entire classes. However, today in particular, I’ve been skipping around. Then I landed on a class that I’m absolutely loving: Issa …

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that one of the problems in my first drafts is that I raise the plot stakes for the characters too quickly, leaving little room for escalation.  I jokingly refer to this problem as the nuclear war problem, because the only option left for an exciting climax …

I do not understand transport company logic. I ordered an item from Georgia in the United States. When I checked the shipping update, I discovered that instead of it being sent straight up the east coast, which is the most direct route, it was at a facility in Texas.That is halfway across the country from where …

I just returned from my first visit to Niagara Falls. While the Falls themselves were as majestic and awe-inspiring as I’d expected, they didn’t trigger any story ideas.Horseshoe Falls from the exit of the Niagara Parks Power Station. Photo copyright 2025 by Vanessa Kier.However, my visit to the Niagara Parks Power Station did give me an …

I’ve been reading a book about how writers can deepen their character building, The Compass of Character by David Corbett. I love his approach to figuring out what a character is lacking. What they’re yearning for. What resistance they face. And what their core desire is. What I find particularly interesting is that at the end of …

While working on that new reader magnet I mentioned last week, I asked both Midjourney and ChatGPT to generate an image of Niko. Which image do you like better?Niko 1 – Character Art from ChatGPTNiko 2 – Character Art from Midjourney