My friend Louis was telling me about a fictional holiday on the TV show 30Rock called “Leap Day” — like February 29th was an actual holiday with a santa-like character associated with it and a traditional dish and observances… but what sold it to him was there were also traditional Read more…
Most of us drop right into the setting of a writing workshop and we’re handed some sheets of someone else’s precious, undying prose, and set to work with no more guideline than “Tell us how you feel about this story.” This … is a recipe for more hurt feelings than Read more…
Vera asked me to show how I change a story from one draft to another, so she could see clearly what happens. The concrete, bones-and-sinew workings! Bad news: I do not save drafts. I edit in the same file, deleting willy-nilly until the story sells. Good news: I belong to Read more…
Writing fiction, like any other art form, is about absorbing truths and experiences, and transferring them to your audience. We often get so focused on talking about techniques and words that we forget what it’s all in service of — namely, this transfer of an emotion I once felt to Read more…
When I first heard about fan fiction, I was … oh let’s be honest, I was a kid and I reacted like all the worst, reactionary blowhards you can imagine. “Why would you do that?? Those are SOMEONE ELSE’S CHARACTERS! Where is the creativity? The AUTOUR?” And so on. But Read more…
How do you show a character doing something that is inherently non-visual? Many stories hinge on a character making a decision. What does that look like? It can be easy to fall into listing all the options, writing out the consequences as a character’s mental monolog, backing-and-forthing. I’ve read that Read more…
I had three-quarters of five novels in my closet, and twenty or so halves of short stories in my desk drawer. Let’s not mention the stuff in my sewing room… my life was full of unread books, unfinished mending, and knitting projects that were just a bag of yarn and Read more…