Margaret South – Creative Writing Workshops for All Levels

A Memoir

man (1)

They say I might see a truck with hunting dogs and a dead pig or two tied to the vehicle. But there’s no sign of life – no cars, no people, no buildings. Just the big, black boar with white tusks off in the distance. I say a little prayer.

Good Morning

sky-water (1)

Like so many people in his situation, Walter realized that every day of life, good or bad, is a wonderful gift. It is like an immense punch-card, each day leaving our life-cards a day closer to the time when all the punches are gone.

The Four Temperaments

oldies

The idea of the Four Temperaments as personality types can be traced back to Persia and Mesopotamia, but it was Hippocrates (660 B.C.) who used the human temperaments to diagnose an imbalance in his medical patients.

Fresh Cut Grass

Fresh Cut Grass | A Poetic Reflection by Margaret South

He recognized the smell of fresh-cut grass. It came to him; those shit-ass blockers let him get taken down. Then he sunk into a chill twilight again. The next time he came to, the prickle of the coppery blood.

When Your Child Has 101 Missing Assignments

small kids

At the same time, her daughter Abby started virtual learning. A super-smart girl, my niece figured out she could hit “submit” for an assignment without attaching any work, and her mom would never know.

Word Count, Schmerd Count

rose-pant

I suggest, instead of chasing the daily word count, try to find one little teensy bit of truth in your writing. Maybe you realized something about your genre. Maybe you found out something new about your Main Character.

My Random but Relevant Prompts

Creative Writing Prompts: Random but Relevant | Margaret South

I design prompts to have an impact on whatever project you’re writing. They may seem random at times, but in fact are keyed to the specific demands all stories have.

It Gets Better!

bossy

As a woman in my thirties, I had found a mate, but decided I wanted a different mate, so I started over with a new mate. We decided we wanted a family, and when that goal proved elusive, we adopted two babies.

To Lean In or to Lean Back?

Winston-Churchil

I’ve begun to challenge myself at this late date. Maybe I’ve been wrong all this time. This week, I did battle with my nemesis Dropbox. When I heard from a client for the third time about a lame link, I wanted to give up

The Three Levels of Story

busy-couple

In the first act of Casablanca, screenwriting twin geniuses Julius and Philip Epstein do a masterful job of setting the stage with an enormous amount of necessary exposition. (PLOT) The writers establish