Today’s prompt from the Daily Post gives me the perfect opportunity to introduce a new series of articles I’ll be offering on this site. I’ve taught creative writing for years, and I am currently gearing up to begin an online instructional course (via e-mail) that I can offer to people who want to take my writing courses but who don’t live within commuting distance. While preparing for that online project, I decided to offer a series of instructional articles here on my website as well.

Of course, the articles here won’t include any editing or feedback for people who do the exercises or write stories connected with the instruction. That service will be part of the actual online e-mail course only. But I thought there might be several readers who would like to glean from the information, suggestions, and experience that I can share from this venue.

The material will come primarily from my writing curriculum Releasing the Creative Writer in You (2013, St. Ellen Press). Some articles will simply be encouragement in certain areas, but many of them will offer specific suggestions that can lead us to keep making our writing better.

I know for certain that I am a much better writer today than I was 10 years ago. In fact, there’s such a difference that I rarely go back and read any of the novels I wrote the first couple years of my fiction writing because I always want to change way too many things, and I’m frustrated because the books are already in publication. But my improvement in writing was primarily the result of writing.  As simple as that sounds, it’s the truth. The more we write — and the more we challenge ourselves to stretch out into new territory and experiment in areas beyond our comfort zones — the better we become at our craft.

So I’ll be posting some segments of my curriculum on here once a week for several weeks. Some of my readers are brand new writers, who can glean something useful from all of the posts. However, I know many of you will already be very familiar with the skills and techniques I’ll be discussing. Hopefully, even for the very experienced, the articles will still give a lift and maybe a new surge of energy. The first couple of posts will be articles that I’ve posted in the past, but they are the best way to introduce the curriculum, so I’ll begin with them.

My plan is to post the instructional articles on Saturdays. I hope they are a source of real help to any readers who are just beginning to delve into their own creativity and writing skills, and an encouragement to several of you out there who already enjoy practicing and maturing your craft.

I love teaching my creative writing classes, and I’m excited about sharing more of that same material here.