Small blue and white bird perched on fence post

The Creative Process: A Summation

Welcome back to the Creative Life Adventure. I've been writing for this site for a bit over two-and-a-half years. Recently, the thought came to me that a summing up of where we've been might be in order. This is my current (most recent) take on the creative process. Like most things in life, this is…

Photo of partial page from print edition of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Insightful Examples of Inciting Incidents

Welcome back to the Creative Life Adventure. I've been thinking a lot lately about inciting incidents and the different ways they can be used in fiction. An inciting incident generally launches the primary conflict or action in a story. Joseph Campbell referred to the inciting incident as a call to action. Sometimes our characters seek…

Selection from one page of Mary Beard's book The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found

You Must Read

Welcome back to the Creative Life Adventure. Currently I'm reading The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found by scholar and classicist Mary Beard. Pompeii is briefly referenced in my current writing-project-in-progress, so I'm reading about the city primarily for research. Fundamentally, however, I'm reading a well-researched book by a respected historian about life in…

Pickup truck and other vehicles driving on wide suburban road

Concentrate Your Fire

Welcome back to the Creative Life Adventure. I've been reading Dr. Maxwell Maltz's 1960 book Psycho-Cybernetics. While the book occasionally strays into the neighborhood I call "crackpottery," there is a lot of useful information. I'm not a fan of the term "self-help," but it's the term that's commonly accepted, so we'll go with that. If…