In an earlier A Work in Progress I wrote about what I most missed after completing coursework for my MA in writing. To fill that gap, I started a writing group. It’s meant so much to me and been so helpful to me that I started a second group.…
Kappa Myths and Manners: Wunderworld Ideas from Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s Kappa is a wonderland journey through Kappa Land narrated by Patient No 23, who has found himself in an insane asylum following his adventures. (My copy is translated by Allison Markin Powell & Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda.)
I have wunderworld projects on my mind these days – stories about adventures Elsewhere, in downstairs underworlds peopled by the dead or next-door wonderlands inhabited by curious characters.…
An Attitude on Platitudes
Recently, my father, reading a piece of my short fiction, questioned my proclivity for unresolved, unsettling, and often sad endings. He requested that I tie things up with a nice bow and let someone in my next story live happily ever after.…
Author Interview: Sofía Segovia
Sofía Segovia, the international best selling author of The Murmor of Bees and Tears of Amber, visits Story Street to chat with our own Elisa Maiz about her writing journey, finding success in translation, and giving ourselves permission in our creative work.
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find:” How Symbolism Makes Flannery O’Connor’s Classic a Story for the Ages
Let’s See How It Works
As a writer, I’m always keen to dissect a story to see how it works. More than that, I want to pinpoint the difference between a great story and a world-class story, the kind that’s anthologized and taught for generations.…
Surviving Feedback
I started my career as a journalist when I was 20 years old, working as a reporter for the social magazine Sierra Madre in Periódico El Norte, the biggest newspaper in my hometown of Monterrey, Mexico. I was finishing my major in Spanish Literature, and journalism was the closest I could find to a writing job.…
Writing Tools not Rules: Story Structures = Symmetry
All rules are really just tools. Story structure is mostly about symmetry and balance.
A Work in Progress: The Value of Short Fiction Contests, Even for Novelists
A group of Story Street Writers entered the NYC Midnight 100-word contest together as a fun little exercise. At midnight on a given day, participants are assigned a genre, a word, and an action, and entries must be submitted within 24 hours.…
The Power and Danger of Honest Writing
Trigger Warning: Mention of Suicide Attempt
Until I woke up in the hospital in Peru on 27 February 2022, after trying to kill myself with a cocktail of Xanax and Stoli, I had been an English teacher for 22 years. I was so lucky to get intensive inpatient therapy and a better, safer cocktail of medication to regulate my brain chemistry.…
Comics corner – writing advice from stand-up comedian Maria Bamford
Stand-up comedian Maria Bamford’s Audible original You Are (A Comedy) Special: A Simple 15-Step Self-Help Guide to Forcibly Force Yourself to Write and Perform a Full Hour of Stand-up Comedy is – well, pretty self-explanatory. The fifteen steps are all very funny and very helpful – check them out (if you have an Audible account, it’s free).…