By David Kent of http://writerinthemountains.blogspot.com What’s the difference between ordinary writing and extraordinary literature? Word choice. That is not some editorial decree to run out and buy a new thesaurus (although if you don’t own J. I. Rodale’s Synonym Finder, you should go get it), there is a lot more to word choice than a…
Author: Sandra
Author of Blue Glass, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and After Lydia, both published by Harcourt Brace; awarded BA from Amherst College and MFA in writing from Columbia University; professor of creative writing on both the undergraduate and graduate levels, including at Columbia University, (NY), Wesleyan University (CT), and Manhattanvill College, (NY); served as assistant editor at Ploughshares and The Paris Review literary magazines, and production freelancer for Glamour, Self, and Vogue
magazines; freelance editor; Stony Brook University’s national annual fiction contest judge; a 2013 BlogHer.com Voices of the Year.
Writing Your Own Writing Prompts
By Jennifer Dunn of http://coffeeandacloseddoor.blogspot.com Yesterday I wrote about why I’ve decided to make my own writing prompts, and I described how I planned to do this. You can find out all about it right here.For a few days prior to posting yesterday, I’d been trying out my method with pretty decent success, but I wasn’t…
Flash Fiction: As Old as Aesop's Fables
by Leanne Radojkovich of http://www.leanneradojkovich.com Very short stories are as old as Aesop’s fables. Jorge Luis Borges, Kate Chopin and Anton Chekov (who said “I can speak briefly on long subjects”) have embraced the form. Ernest Hemingway has 18 very short stories in his book In Our Time which might today be called flash, as might Franz Kafka’s Parables and…
“If it Sounds Like Writing, Rewrite it”
Carol Cassara of http://carolcassara.com “Worship of Writers”: a phrase on wrapping paper I saw while in London, and one I think is what authors finally are, collectively. I wasn’t sure how I would use the photo I took of this wrapping paper: Wrapping paper I saw in London Then I ran across some of the very best writing tips ever.…
Loosening the Screws on Too-Tight Writing
Whilst editing more of the never-ending manuscript last night, I became aware that some of my writing was tight. As tight as a publisher’s wallet in fact. I can clearly discern which sections I wrote during free-wheeling, word-flowing time off when I spent a couple of hours jotting down stream-of-consciousness, vaguely-related meanderings, which eventually morphed…
The Creative Process: Thumbnail Sketches and Napkin Notes
By Amy Duncan A few weeks ago, I posed these questions on Facebook: Here are a few questions for my creative friends (writers, musicians, composers, artists, photographers, etc.): What is your creative process? How do you approach your work, day by day? What are your work habits? Your frustrations (if any!)? Feel free to be…
Writing: How to Get Story Ideas...
By J.R. Frontera of http://jrfrontera.wordpress.com …otherwise known as: How To Tap Into the Elusive “Everywhere.” If you are like most yet-to-be-published writers, you attempt to learn all you can from the successful career authors any chance you get. This often includes reading magazine articles, interviews, and online articles about them, and sometimes even traveling to…
Writing: Killing Your Darlings
By Jon Simmonds Contributing Features Editor, of http://jumpingfromcliffs.com It seems barely a day goes past without someone somewhere posting about the “rules” of writing. Now, I’m not entirely sure that I agree with this; I feel there are far too many so-called rules imposed upon one of the most creative pursuits imaginable. Creativity doesn’t follow rules…
Writing: Peel Back Your Protagonist's Mask
You think you know your main character so well. You know where she came from, where he went to school, the name of her chosen dagger, and why he never goes to bed before three in the morning. But if you think you know everything there is to know about your character, think again. To…
Writing: How to Beat the Blank Page
By Shanan Haislip, Features Contributing Editor Some days, there’s nothing more paralyzing than the expanse of white paper or white Word document in front of you. The pressure! The expectations! The sheer nothingyetness of it! The unbroken marble monotony of the blank page has made me cower and back away from it many, many times. We…
The Four D’s: Part 4 – More on Depth of Character
A Special Feature Series: See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 At the welcome reception for my MFA program I was asked the following question: when my novel is published and on bookstore shelves, next to which author would I like to see it placed? I had never thought about this and found myself unable to…
The Four D’s: Part 3 – Depth of Character
A Special Feature Series: See Part 1 and Part 2. Writing craft books and writing teachers will tell you that readers read for character. Indeed, the cornerstone of literary fiction is the complex character study. At a minimum, even the most surface-dwelling, plot-driven genre novel needs engaging characters to carry the story. These characters are…