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Seize the Cow

A collection of 10 posts

Nontraditional Plot Structures for Neurodiverse Writers is NOW AVAILABLE FOR FREE!

Nontraditional Plot Structures for Neurodiverse Writers is NOW AVAILABLE FOR FREE!

Download the FREE ebook Nontraditional Plot Structures for Neurodiverse Writers

COVER REVEAL

Nontraditional Plot Structures for Neurodiverse Writers Check out the cover reveal for this free ebook that introduces neurodiverse writers (and neurotypical) to plot structures beyond the commonly used hero’s Journey. These plots are emotionally accessible, highly creative, and more “traditional” than you’d expect. Born from a rejected dissertation

What is a "plot" and why "subplots" don't exist

The following is a section from my upcoming free ebook Nontraditional Plot Structures for Neurodiverse writers. It comes out May 1 and will be available on this blog! WHAT IS A "PLOT"? This may seem like an unnecessary section. Any writer who chooses to read this book already

Fragments of Chaos: Organizing Chunks of Random Notes Into Whole Stories

Fragments of Chaos: Organizing Chunks of Random Notes Into Whole Stories

I wrote a post on Instagram asking for neurodivergent writers to talk to me about their notebooks. Every neurodivergent writer I've ever talked to has had a trove of notebooks filled with ideas and partially written stories. I asked each person who generously responded about their notes, how

Adapting "Little Miss Muffet" into a Chaos-structured story

Adapting "Little Miss Muffet" into a Chaos-structured story

I've written about Chaos before. First, in my post about the concept in general, and then in an analysis of "Hey Diddle, Diddle" as a manifestation of a Chaos structure. Now, I'm going a step further. I'm doing an adaptation of "

"Hey, Diddle, Diddle", a Nursery Rhyme Built With Chaos

"Hey, Diddle, Diddle", a Nursery Rhyme Built With Chaos

"Hey Diddle, Diddle" (HDD) makes no conventional sense. Theorists and literary critics cannot agree about HDD. Some believe it's "literary nonsense". Others insist it is "gibberish". These are actual literary distinctions. I want to reinterpret and clarify a nursery rhyme that can

CHAOS: an Alternative Plot Structure for Neurodiverse Writers

neurodivergence

CHAOS: an Alternative Plot Structure for Neurodiverse Writers

I've been working on this for a long time. Only recently have I taken on the name of Chaos to describe this alternative plot structure. It's nothing new. I'm only describing a form of writing that's existed on the edges of literature

Why Creative Writing Coaching? I'll Tell You Why, As Plato

[I'm going to structure this one like Plato] WRITER: No, just no. Not going to do it. PLATO: Why? WRITER: I know how to write. I've written ten novels and a thousand short stories. Creative writing is supposed to teach me how to write stories, right?

PROFESSOR DAVID RUSH TAUGHT ME HOW TO CRITIQUE

This format for critiquing is one used by the former playwriting professor, David Rush, at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. The point of a critique is to determine whether or not the writer has created a work which conveys his or hers intentions. If the author wanted to write a horror

It is time to seize the cow

Why? Why are we seizing cows? Aliens are a boogeyman. In pop culture, we are told that aliens will kidnap us from our beds and do lots of weird medical experiments on us, including, though not limited to, an anal probe. I don't say this to disparage or