The Empowered Writer, Part Four By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes Read Part One, Part Two, and Part Three “Gee! And here I’d thought…” (Anonymous) Rare indeed is the writer who, the next morning, hasn’t cast a quick…
Category: on prose writing
Questions of Courage
The Empowered Writer, Part Three By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes *Read Part One here and Part Two here “Even the most successful of careers is built on a mountain of wasted effort.” —E. M. Forster Note…
The "Lucky Hit"—and After
The Empowered Writer, Part Two By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes Read Part One here “I have to learn alone to turn my body without force in the deep element.” —Adrienne Rich, “Diving into the Wreck,” lines…
The Empowered Writer
Part One By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes “That afternoon nothing new came to Thea Kronborg, no enlightenment, no inspiration. She merely came into full possession of things she had been refining and perfecting for so long.”…
‘Weighing in’ on Others
In Life, and in our Reading By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes “Well, I never really did think much of him, y’know.” (Generic line of dialogue) In literature at large, it serves as staple and lubricant, and…
Exiting our Characters: When Last We Saw (or Heard of) Them
Guiding Your Reader’s Eye: The Choreography of Perception, Part Four By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes Read Part One, Part Two, and Part Three “Well, good-by,” said Alan, and held out his left hand. “Good-by,” said I, and…
Assemble the Gang!
Guiding Your Reader’s Eye: The Choreography of Perception, Part Three By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes Read Part One and Part Two ~ An especially enticing expository challenge occurs for us as writers when we open a story…
Doing More with Less
Guiding Your Reader’s Eye: The Choreography of Perception, Part Two By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes Read Part One here ~ When we’re writing synoptically—“sketchily,” that is—and wish to move on to parts of a story we…
Showcasing Marc Vincenz
A Poem, and a Prose Poem Novel By DeWitt Henry, Prose Editor Here is a timely, post-Ukraine/post-apocalyptic poem from Marc Vincenz’s 21st collection, There Might be a Moon or a Dog (Gazebo Books/Life Before Man, 2022): Above the Rubble ……………….Let me introduce you. Let me implore you ……………….To look upon your weakness— ……………….Does anyone laugh at…
Guiding Your Reader’s Eye
The Choreography of Perception Part One By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes “…the eye altering alters all.” (William Blake, “The Mental Traveller,” line 62) It’s a bit of a wonder that we can follow it at all—the…
Irony Builds Community
Dialogue in Action By WTP Writer Richard Wertime Woven Tale Press writer Richard Wertime reflects on the craft of fiction in an ongoing series of craft notes “I trust I make myself obscure.” (Sir Thomas More, in A Man for All Seasons) … What was it that induced me, as I approached the three women,…
On Writing
A Translation By Abdón Ubidia Translated from Spanish by Nathan D. Horowitz Excerpted from a longer essay, “50 sombras de un escritor.” The writer should obey only his own poetic animal. Find yours. Search even the stupidest places in your heart. If something in your writing sounds wrong to you, it will sound even worse…