A family of three, promises made — This story was written based on a Reedsy prompt: Your character always makes the same promise; to change. Will they finally make it happen this time? Check out other entries here. Adam descends the creaky stairs. His mother’s voice echoes from within the kitchen as she senses his approach. …

Am I Saramago — This article is a response to Exercise 2 of Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft: a 21st-century guide to sailing the sea of story. Join Better Fiction and publish with us your response. Share the goodness, and let’s grow together. Write a paragraph to a page (150–350 words) of narrative…

A boy’s struggle with identity in an ultra-conservative culture — This story was written based on a Reedsy prompt: Write a story inspired by the phrase “Back to square one.” Check out other entries here. Mr. Ahmed slammed the door shut. He walked ten feet to the front of the classroom, his slippers clapping against the soles of his callus…

Going through some dark times to find gems of personal growth — It’s been a minute since I posted on Medium. Okay, maybe two. But the last five months away from writing have led to much personal growth. In a way, I needed to get away from the things I inadvertently used to gain a sense of worth and significance. Things that…

Exercise is much more than we’ve come to believe — Many find themselves at odds with exercise, and there are many reasons for why that is. Perhaps for some, life’s other priorities crowd exercise out. Or maybe for others, it’s a mindset issue leading to unrealistic expectations around exercise or that it is reserved for the superficial or pretentious of…

The sound of your writing — This article is a response to exercise 1, part 2 of Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft: a 21st-century guide to sailing the sea of story. Check out what I’ve written for exercise 1, part 1 here. Join Better Fiction and publish with us your response. Share the goodness, and…

Using the character’s strength and weakness to drive the plot — Note: This piece is assignment 1 for Coursera’s Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot. I invite you to take on this assignment prompt yourself and publish it with Better Writing after requesting to be added as a writer. Oh, and do let me know what you liked, didn’t like, and…

The sound of your writing — Late fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin authored a renowned handbook for storytellers called, Steering the Craft: a 21st-century guide to sailing the sea of story. I first heard about her book in Coursera’s program, Creative Writing: The Craft of Character, and later purchased a paperback copy from Amazon. To…

Aspects of what home looked like to me — As a teenage boy who lived in Saudi Arabia during the 2000s, the following are aspects of what home looked like to me. Al Khobar and Al Dhahran were neighboring districts within the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Al Khobar was home, while Al Dhahran was where I spent most…