Having your way with words

Types of Writing

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the things we need most in the world.”

Philip Pullman

Let’s start with an official definition of ‘story’. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, a story is “an account of incidents or events”. Letters, diaries, emails, blog posts, reports, notes to self – they are all stories.

My job is to help you create better stories.

Writing is like art. We know what we like when we see it, because it makes us feel, hear, taste and touch. Open up your notebook to a blank page. Get ready to make notes.

Think about writing that moves you, affects how you think or what you believe or sweeps you away to worlds you’ve never imagined? Make a short list. Who are your favourite authors? What is it that draws you to their stories? What do you want to write? Who do you want to read your creations?

My first objective is to share with you helpful tips and links about the art and craft of writing for pleasure, for school or for business. My second objective is to inspire you to write regularly and improve the quality of your writing.

Anyone can recount an event. Remember Sergeant Joe Friday from the 1950s television series, Dragnet? He’d always say, “Just the facts, Ma’am’ when investigating a case. That’s a memorable catch-phrase but not a sound foundation for good holding an audience’s attention. Let’s talk about two kinds of writing.

Narrative – telling a story (usually about a personal experience) so that the reader learns a lesson or gains insight.

What’s your topic?
What do you know that the reader doesn’t know?
Are you sharing information about an experience that we can all resonate with, that evokes a memory or that will touch our emotions?
What is the lesson or insight behind your narrative?

Descriptive – describing a person, object or event so that the reader shares the sensory experience of it.

Setting. Where did the event occur? Was it crowded, dark, lonely, hot, smelly, raining, alien, loud, etc.?
Character. Who was involved? What was unusual/memorable about them?
Action or Plot. The rise and fall of what happened.
Conclusion. The end. Get to the point.

Whether you’re talking about what you saw at the mall, telling a joke, repeating a conversation you overheard (all writers should become eavesdroppers), creating a bedtime story or crafting fiction, you must include details that make a reader or listener care.

Look outside your window. Pick an object. Write half a page about it. Create a VIVID descriptive piece.

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Why Mystery?

by Hyacinthe Miller • 14 July 2026

Ordinary people = engaging suspense

Gooooooaaaaaallll!

by Hyacinthe Miller • 2 July 2026

When people think about international sporting events, they often picture the action inside stadiums jammed with tens of thousands of screaming fans. Yet, some of the most memorable moments happen far beyond the first and last whistles. What I’ve seen in Mexico during a FIFA match, is entire towns transformed by watch parties in homes or bars, convoys of vehicles honking horns and waving flags from windows, and everyone out celebrating. We’re all wearing green shirts in honour of our Mexican football team and it’s amazing. It’s been a time when strangers become neighbours for a few unforgettable weeks. Walking through the streets at any time of day, you can feel the energy. Hawkers are selling Mexican themed team shirts of all kinds. Families bring their lawn chairs to the malacon to watch the match on a big screen television set up by the skateboard park. Before and afterwards, folks gather in the central square. A few weeks ago, I was on a flight from Toronto to Mexico City connecting to Guadalajara. Fans from all over the world were wearing team jerseys. There was such a happy buzz of pride and laughter. The man I sat beside was born in Mexico but hadn’t been back in forty-one years (he’d had a complicated life). He had tickets to games in Mexico City (CDMX) and Guadalajara. When we arrived in Guadalajara airport, there were two lines of people dressed in team colours greeting everyone heading out of the terminal. Music, chanting, dancing—I’d never seen anything like it. Last night on my way home from watching the game with a group of friends, there were no cars on the streets. It was eerily quiet. Even the dogs were silent. Yet, form every house I passed by on the way home, I could hear the game and cheers behind the curtains. When Mexico ended the game with a 2-0 win, then the celebrations spilled into the streets. Lots of cohetes being set off, cheering, and horns honking long after the match had ended. Everywhere you look, people are wearing team jerseys, interesting headgear or draping themselves in the flag. The sense of excitement is contagious. What makes the celebration especially memorable is the friendliness of the Mexican people. We saw lots of that hospitality offered in Tijuana to the Iranian team, whose exclusion form the US meant they had to fly out of Mexico for every match, and return afterwards. The Korean team will remember Mexican hospitality for a long time. In fact, there are lots of memes circulating that in nine months, there will be dozens of Korean Mexican babies born with names like Fernando Kim, Yoon Sun Lopez, Andreas Lorenzo Lee, Lourdes Maria Park. Especially in these troubled times, events like soccer with teams from around the world, remind us that competition can unite people and give them a break from political shanigans.

Having your way with words

Recent Posts

Why Mystery?

Gooooooaaaaaallll!

The Writer's Voice

Writing Flashbacks

Creating Characters Readers Root For

Keep Readers Engaged

Rev Up the Conflict Engine

Writing Tip

Crafting Story Arcs

Just finish

I write because I breathe.