A few weeks ago, award-winning author Mark Richard visited Hillsdale as part of the English department’s Visiting Writers program. He came on campus for a few days and gave some lectures, readings, and workshops for the students. Mark Richard is primarily a novelist and short story writer, and while he was on campus I was able to attend a session in which he analyzed one of his own short stories. He pointed out its techniques — both its strengths and its weaknesses — and related the process of how he wrote it. He gave us practical, understandable advice about the mechanics of short stories, and I walked away from that session with both new information and new inspiration.

A fellow Hillsdale student who attended the session recently wrote an article on the college’s Student Stories blog, and he condensed much of Richard’s advice into five short storytelling tips. If you’re interested in these simple guidelines for story writing, you can check out the article here. I hope you find Mark Richard’s words of wisdom as helpful as I have!