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…

Creating the same scene from first-person and third-person omniscient POVs — Note: This piece is assignment 4 for Coursera’s Creative Writing: The Craft of Character. 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…

A New Publication for Your Fiction Fix — Not too long ago, I got into reading and writing fiction, and to my surprise, Medium seems to have never picked up traction in that area or, perhaps, died trying. But I’ve begun to see the positive impact fiction storytelling has had on my mental health and my life in…

Guidelines and call for submissions — Why I started Better Fiction I’ll be honest, growing up, I was never a fan of fiction. In fact, I was never that big on reading, period. My teenage years were all about gaming with friends. Then, I entered my twenties and began my emotional healing journey and as I searched for answers, reading became…