The Inquisitive Inkpot
Exploring Tales and the Art of Telling
Category: Writing Insights
How to Improve your Writing: a recent discovery
This is not a 3-step plan to improve your writing in three weeks. If you’ve followed The Inquisitive Inkpot for any amount of time, you’ll know that I am not about providing formulas—I’m about suggesting concepts. And when it comes to improving your writing,… Continue Reading “How to Improve your Writing: a recent discovery”
“Teenage Chronicles”: Meet the Author
What better way to resume the blogging regimen than by showing you a recent interview with a young author! Earlier, I wrote about the young author Saania Saxena’s upcoming book Teenage Chronicles that was to be released this summer—and it is now in print!… Continue Reading ““Teenage Chronicles”: Meet the Author”
Children as Props
What happens when lead characters have children? Obviously children can be compelling lead characters in literature and film. Just look at some of the most popular, longstanding works we know: The Chronicles of Narnia Harry Potter Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn Charlotte’s Web Anne… Continue Reading “Children as Props”
Getting a Script Noticed
Submitting a script for production and submitting a novel for publication require different things. If you’ve read my article on making the “pitch” for a script, you already know this process can be uniquely intimidating. Impressing powerful people always is. Even so, there’s plenty… Continue Reading “Getting a Script Noticed”
A Blogging Milestone: the 100th Post
Two years ago, the term “blogging milestone” seemed ridiculous—even pretentious. The last blogging milestone I made a post about was the 30th one, in February of 2020, which was more like an announcement of The Inquisitive Inkpot’s identity shift. I don’t think even after… Continue Reading “A Blogging Milestone: the 100th Post”
Mental Exercises to Keep You Sharp
Mental exercises aren’t just for mathematicians or professional chess players: they’re for creative types, too. I say this as someone who often neglects mental exercises because they take time. Why use the precious minutes of my day on something completely unrelated to my all-consuming… Continue Reading “Mental Exercises to Keep You Sharp”
Evaluating Illustration Thumbnails
Easter, Sunshine, and Thumbnails: who could ask for anything more? This beautiful, sunny Easter weekend was made even more enthralling when my illustrator sent me the complete set of thumbnails for Bertrand the Bashful Bumblebee—my next children’s book, on track to be released this… Continue Reading “Evaluating Illustration Thumbnails”
The Writer’s Creative Conscience: staying Accountable
Every writer has a creative conscience. By “creative conscience,” I don’t mean a moral compass that dictates what we do and don’t create. I mean a still, small voice that haunts us when we aren’t creating and hounds us for not achieving milestones. The… Continue Reading “The Writer’s Creative Conscience: staying Accountable”
Career Advice that Transformed my Thinking
Writers need career advice too. The problem is that there are too many sources out there that trumpet the same theory—regardless of how many times that theory fails. How many of us have heard career advice that goes like this? “Follow your passion and… Continue Reading “Career Advice that Transformed my Thinking”
The Secret Character Arc
Every good story needs a character arc. Plot arc and character arc—those are the two essential ingredients in any story. Without those two, you have something less than quality storytelling. What I’ve noticed, though, is that not all characters see their own arc. Now… Continue Reading “The Secret Character Arc”
