When I was a child, seesaws were fun until they weren’t. When I could find balance and unity with a trustworthy friend on the opposite side, there was harmony, levity, and joy. When I exerted effort, I pushed off into the sky.…
A Work in Progress: All of Writing is Suffering
I am not Buddhist, but I’m not not Buddhist. Same with Catholicism.
One belief that I share with some Catholics and some Buddhists is that all of life is suffering. For St. Teresa of Calcutta, earthly suffering brings us closer to the state of Jesus, giving us a rare ecstasy that prepares us to meet God.…
Bringing first person intimacy into third person narratives: a lesson from Ha Jin
I like the intimacy of first person. The direct connection with a character, the lack of any barriers between us – this tends to be what sucks me into a book. (It’s even better when the lines between reader and protagonist blur entirely, as in Ulysses or Liu Yichang’s The Drunkard.)…
Show and Tell and Write: Writing Tools not Rules
Showing versus telling is not a matter of right and wrong. Once again, in writing, there are no rules, only tools.
Mind The Gap: How the Uncle Charles Principle and Its Adaptations Can Close the Gap Between Narrator and Reader in Different Narrative Points of View
As writers, we often desire to close the gap between our characters and readers. We want readers to become so engrossed in the characters’ lives that they forget they are reading. This gap between the reader and the text can widen when the author uses an indirect characterization method.…
“The Road to the Country” by Chigozie Obioma
TRIGGER WARNING: Graphic Violence
The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma is a brutal and honest look at war and genocide. Kunle, the novel’s protagonist, is defined by the guilt he feels over a childhood accident that left his younger brother paralyzed.…
Let’s Talk About First Lines with Faulkner
Recently, a statement in a BBC article by Hephzibah Anderson about the all-important first line of a novel caught my eye: “We frontload our expectations, insisting that a handful of words must contain the DNA of all that is to come, encapsulating the conflict of a 300-page story.”…
Consider an Author Website an Investment in You
You are a writer. You may not have published a long-form work, but you write and revise, you submit, you pitch. Maybe you are seeking a literary agent. Maybe you plan to self publish. Or maybe you just write and rewrite.…
First Annual Hundred Word Horror Contest!
Announcing our first annual Hundred Word Horror fiction contest. With a matching hundred dollar first prize.