In our writers’ group, it seems like we’re always referring to movies – more so than books even – when we want to use something to refer to when talking about storytelling structure. For instance, in our last writers’ meeting, the topic came up about the Hero’s Journey and the importance of caring about a character if a story is going to work. A reader must love or hate a character if he’s going to join him on a journey, …

Everyone’s a critic, as the adage goes. But it’s especially the case when a group of writers get together and assess, analyze, decipher, dissect and evaluate each others’ writing as if they were students in Grade 10 biology class and they have the chance to cut up frogs and identify all the cool little bits they find inside the frog. One time, when I was in that very class, one of the other students took the opportunity to use his …

For those of us on the west coast – and particularly the Pacific Northwest – the recent sunshine comes with fantastic relief. After so many days of heart-shrivelling, wrinkle-forming pissy skies, many of us – especially neurotic writers like myself – were leering out at the so-called great outdoors and silently casting curses at the weather gods. However, some writers probably rose to the occasion and spun out delectable tales of gloom that would make Poe finally rest in his …

A few years – decades, even? – ago, I was watching David Letterman and his cheeky gap-toothed New York humour as was the norm of my late nights, and this time, Peter O’Toole was one of the guests on the show. I’ve seen many actors, actresses and celebrities (yes, that’s a third category) on Letterman and I’ve always found the best interviews to be with the older stock. People like O’Toole, former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw and Robert Mitchum, among …