Train Your Eye for Better Writing

Writer's Digest Better Writing Tess CallahanMy article in the September 2017 issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine explores three ways to add color to the canvas of your manuscript by using techniques adapted from traditional visual arts training: emulations, thumbnail sketches and underpaintings. It also offers bits of wisdom gleaned from artistic masters and gurus John Gardner, Natalie Goldberg, Stephen King, Roy Kinzer, Ann Lamott, Pablo Picasso and Francine Prose.  You can find the article on newsstands or here Feel free to contact me with questions or comments. I’m always looking to expand my ideas. Happy writing!

The Love Affair Between Creativity & Constraint

Can we boost our creative goals by constraining them? Here is a counter-intuitive method of unleashing creativity by putting chains on it. Like Houdini, the imagination likes to use its wits to unshackle itself. This talk explores artists and writers who sought out constraints to leverage inspiration. Innovation needs a boundary to push against. Shakespeare did it. Countless artists and innovators have done it. Discover how to give your own creativity a wild dare.

Enjoy!