That screaming you heard last month originating from the Toluca Lake/Burbank area was just me. It sounded like this: “Caliiibriiiii...

We know a worn-out story when we see one: tropes become narrative traps and archetypes become stereotypes. But is the story itself worn...

Establishing a Cycle – and Blowing It Up Real life, or at least most of it, is a series of patterns. Those patterns define our reality,...

What does it mean to dream? Unconscious journeys, waking escapes or a grand vision for the future, a "dream" has a different meaning to...

We've recently touched on what happens when a character makes a decision that surprises the author. Usually, this inconvenient moment is...

Holiday Emotion Exercise Ah. the Winter Solstice. The shortest day of the year, closing on the end of the calendar, and the time the...

Last weekend (October 5th) The Quill & Pint held a workshop at the Buena Vista branch of the Burbank Public Library on how to prepare for...

A 2-part exercise. Whether a character is good or bad; Batman or the Joker, Clarice or Hannibal, to keep the audience in the story, the...

A 2-part exercise. Here are 20 actual loglines from well-known movies, minus the names. You probably know them all, but you're going to...

We all know the feeling ... you sit down at your desk, a cup of coffee or tea (or something stronger) in hand, and a fresh page in front...

By Erik Day Margin Notes is a creative aside from the Quill and Pint group. Writing-related thoughts, editorials and observations are...

Each week we feature a story written by one or two of our group members at our weekly meetings. For this week's featured storey, we...

On April 21 we got into one of the more in-depth discussions about writing we’ve ever had. Here’s a brief section of that conversation...