Writing Resources
Writing resources to inspire
innovative storytelling.
Articles
The diptych as short-form memoir
Life writing tips: How asking questions can spark new stories
Visual CNF forms: A look at the concrete essay
4 powerful ways to use images and text in CNF
Answering the call: On writing about trauma and loss
Let’s get graphic: A look at the visual essay
On seeking the truth in our stories
4 new ways to tell your stories
E-Books
20 Story Structures for CNF Writers: A Compendium of Non-Linear & Genre-Bending Forms
Craft stronger, more creative first drafts. Find a “side door” into difficult material. Convey a truer account of how memory actually works. The many advantages of non-linear, fragmented, hybrid forms that stretch the boundaries of the personal essay may surprise you!
Courses
Spark Your Outlier Story
An outlier is someone or something that exists on the margins, set apart by what makes it unique. In this popular 6-week course we’ll explore the flash essay, prose poem, lyric essay, and hermit crab essay—forms ideal for crafting new, surprising, and innovative short-form memoir that readers (and editors) will love!
Spark Your Visual Story
The photo essay, concrete essay, pictorial essay, and paper craft essay combine textual and visual storytelling to create greater depth, meaning, and impact for the reader. In this exciting 6-week course on CNF forms inspired by visual art we’ll craft innovative personal narratives that bend—and blend—genres.
I 'm Nicole Breit
- Award winning poet and essayist residing on Canada’s gorgeous Sunshine Coast, the traditional territory of the Skwx̱wú7mesh people.
- Creative writing teacher whose passion is to help writers discover new ways to shape their memories into well-crafted narratives.
Free mini e-book
Loss is a universal story theme—grief, a common block to writing our raw, vulnerable stories about loss. In this free e-book I share 9 tips for writing about grief and loss with care and intention.
Everyone’s life is a story: A Q and A with Rita Pomade
"What I learned in writing the book was that my life was a story. And by extension, everyone’s life is a story. It’s how you perceive it and the extent to which you’re reactive or proactive that can make it a more or less interesting story. And even if you...