Lit Lessons on Flight School

Welcome into Flight School: I hope you enjoy watching this rich, insightful, touching conversation of the six-week Light Keeper’s Challenge. I created the Light Keeper’s Challenge to help myself and others shine the light on our creative lives amidst darkening days and a flurry of festivities. I was able to finish a draft of my novel, read the whole of it and set my revision plan. I also finished...

Hi and welcome into Flight School: There's a moment in writing when the world cracks open. Not with the thunderous drama of revelation, but with the quiet gasp of recognition. As a New York Times bestselling author and writing teacher these two decades, I've witnessed this countless times - writers pause mid-sentence, their voices catch, and tears welling up as they read work they themselves creat...

Welcome into Flight School: There's a moment in every writer's journey when the fantasy of being an author collides with the reality of becoming one. It's like stepping into a cathedral of creativity where the stained glass windows are made of your own vulnerabilities, each pane illuminating a different shade of your creative truth. The Evolution of Artistic Growth The path from aspiring writer to...

Hi Flyers: “You can be as mad as a dog at the ways things went, you can swear and curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.” ~Captain Mike’s death speech in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button I was as mad as a dog. I swore. I cursed the fates. It wasn’t a battle on the high seas but the rejection of a novel I felt sure would sell. Here’s what the powers that be at over tw...

Welcome back: …every author attests to the two states of writing—inspiration and waiting for inspiration. These words from the chapter titled A Novel of Your Own (I) of 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley become the overarching truth for our ten week “Get it Done" Challenge that launched July 1. Rather than waiting, we create inspiration through accountability. What you have here is a c...

An open mic post and free teaching on theme, why it matters and how applying yourself to the study of theme can take some of the sting out of your memoir writing. Welcome: Who cares about my story? My book? Me? If you are a writer of any form, you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t ask these questions. But as memoir writers, these questions infiltrate nearly every moment of our creative process. “Who...

Welcome into Flight School: Every person in your story deserves careful attention, even those who appear only briefly. The best writers know this - they make every character memorable through precise, thoughtful description. Let me show you how they do it. The Masters at Work Look how these writers bring passing characters vividly to life: Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr: A pair of monks, sm...

Join our deep-dive analysis of "Crazy for the Storm," featuring marked-up pages that reveal exactly how a master writer builds tension. Plus, discover the moment when craft becomes invisible and story takes over, and learn to create that magic in your own work. Hi and welcome: It’s time to continue with Crazy for the Storm and the answers to the questions I asked. First, the pages marked up for yo...

Take your Scene Recipe Card into the field with an interactive study of "Crazy for the Storm." Follow along with downloadable materials as we discover how Norman Ollestad brings scenes to vivid life, and learn to spot the essential elements that make memoir memorable. Hi and welcome: In my last post, I broke scene into seven basic elements and gave you the assignment of writing the first three int...

Learn the essential building block of great memoir, featuring a practical tool that transforms good writing into unforgettable storytelling. Plus, discover why mastering scene is the key to moving from reporting to art. Welcome into Flight School: Generally speaking scene is the building block of creative nonfiction...the widespread notion that nonfiction is the writer's thoughts presented in an e...