Creativity Resources

Developing Your Story

McKee Story Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting Robert McKee's Story is helpful for anyone attempting to develop an enticing narrative. McKee offers deep insights on story process and how story conflicts and characters affect audiences. His graphics are invaluable.

Story Structure Architect: A Writer's Guide to Building Dramatic Situations and Compelling Characters Victoria Lynn Schmidt's Story Structure Architect is an entertaining book providing examples of story conflict situations. Although it is written with movie references, the concepts can be applied for stage writing.

The Writer's Journey, Second Edition: Mythic Structure for Writers Now in its second edition, The Writer's Journey sets forth archetypes common in what Vogler calls "the hero's journey," the mythic structure that he claims all stories follow.

Myth and the Movies - Story writing Myth & the Movies: Discovering the Myth Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films Author Stuart Voytilla applies Joseph Campbell's hero's journey to movie examples.

Keep your creative juices flowing.

The Artists Way Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way, etc.

Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way has helped inspire thousands of artistic people to pursue their creative dreams. When I read it in the mid 1990's, I began to take my writing seriously, and focused on long-term dream of a freelance writing career.

I recommend all of Julia's books and tapes, including the The Right to Write and others. She also teaches in New York at the Open Center, Learning Annex, and Omega Institute from time to time.

Fearless Creating (Inner Workbook.) - Some people prefer Eric Maiesel's approach to creating without fear.

Natalie Goldberg - Writing Down the Bones and other books - Link to a slew of books about writing:

Writing Down the Bones
Wild Mind : Living the Writer's Life
Thunder and Lightning : Cracking Open the Writer's Craft
The Essential Writer's Notebook

I also recommend her audiobooks. It's great fun to follow some of her exercises.

Organizing for the Creative Person

To send suggestions, comments, or questions write to carol@musicalschwartz.com