The Quiet Quotient

Using Imagination as a Writing Muscle (Consistency is Key)

If you want to build a world that feels real, you have to approach it with the same meticulous planning you’d use for a project management board. You don't just "imagine" a dragon; you imagine the logistics of a dragon. How does it affect the local cattle economy? What are the zoning laws for a fire-breathing reptile? When you apply that kind of deep research to a wild idea, the "unusual thing" stops being a gimmick and starts being a foundation.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

How To Build a Memorable Character for a Sketch (From a Second City Trained Writer)

In a three-minute sketch, you don’t have time to be subtle. But being "big" isn't the same thing as being "loud."
A powerful character isn’t necessarily the person screaming in the scene. They are the person with the clearest POV. At Second City, we were taught that the "Who" is always more important than the "What." You aren't just writing a plumber. You’re writing a plumber who believes he’s a philosopher-king of the U-bend.
If you want a character who can carry a scene without breaking a sweat, you need to follow a specific blueprint.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

Why Writers Mistake Silence for Emptiness (And the Creative Power of the Gap)

Writing is often sold as a lightning bolt, a sudden, divine spark that strikes when you’re staring at a sunset or nursing a third espresso. But if you wait for the bolt, you’re mostly just standing in the rain.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

Every New Writer is Like a Garage Band (How to Find Your Voice and Writing Style)

Every new writer starts out exactly like a garage band: loud, slightly out of tune, and deeply annoying to the neighbors.
You spend those first few months (or years) just trying to find the right chords. You’ve got all this raw energy and a "vision," but the technical execution is a mess. You’re over-relying on the literary equivalent of a distortion pedal—big, flashy adjectives and melodramatic metaphors—to mask the fact that you haven't quite mastered the rhythm of a solid sentence yet.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

The Tell-Tale Heart (Edgar Allan Poe's Iconic Story as a Sketch)

Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Tell-Tale Heart" isn’t just a ghost story; it is a high-energy "solo character" bit. It’s essentially a 19th-century manic monologue where the performer tries desperately to convince the audience they are sane while describing the most insane behavior imaginable.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

Writing Is Mostly Rearranging Furniture

When people imagine writing, they imagine inspiration.
A bolt of lightning. A perfect paragraph arriving fully formed. The writer calmly placing it on the page like a priceless sculpture.
But actual writing feels less like sculpture and more like moving furniture around a small apartment.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

The Sentence That Thinks It's Important (And Why It Might Be)

Every draft contains at least one sentence that believes it is extremely important. You know the one. It walks into the paragraph wearing a tuxedo. It clears its throat. It adjusts its cufflinks. It announces, in a tone normally reserved for Supreme Court rulings:
This is the moment when everything becomes clear. The problem is that most sentences are not Supreme Court rulings. Most sentences are just people trying to cross the street without getting hit by a bus. But that sentence doesn’t know that. It believes it is delivering wisdom. It believes readers will pause, lean back, and whisper, “My God.”Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

The Invisible Reader Sitting Behind You (Would Your Writing Keep Their Attention?)

This invisible reader is patient, but they are also honest in a quiet way. When the sentence becomes stiff, they shift slightly in their chair. When the paragraph wanders, they glance toward the door. When you begin explaining something three different ways—just to prove you’re very smart—they sigh in a polite but unmistakable manner.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

If War and Peace Were a Sketch (Chapters 1-3 Re-written as a Sketch)

If Leo Tolstoy had spent a summer in a Chicago basement writing sketches instead of a sprawling estate in Russia, War and Peace wouldn't be a 1,200-page epic. It would be a high-stakes, uncomfortable ten-minute set about people who can’t stand each other.
Here is how those first three chapters look when you trade the quill for a writer's room.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

It’s Okay Not to Know Where Your Writing Is Going

One of the quiet fears many writers carry is the feeling that they should know exactly how a piece will turn out before they begin. The outline should be perfect. The argument should be clear. The ending should already exist somewhere in the mind.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/