I’ve just returned from a short trip to Europe, and along with my recent tour of museums in Vienna and Munich, a couple of recent articles have me thinking about political art. The first is “A Painting for a World in Collapse” by Jerry Saltz in New York Magazine. . . .
Read MoreJumping off of my post about the upcoming NaNoWriMo, I’ve declared this year’s project, and it is a retelling of a classic novel. NaNo seems like a good time to do a retelling, since the source material provides a ready plot and characters—
Read MoreMore so than many other aspects of writing craft, there seems to be a shortage of guides on how to write a good sex scene. I’ve mostly learned via osmosis, taking notes from works that I liked, . . .
Read MoreWriting is a series of choices; some are big, some small, some are easier to make, some not. Having recently finished a draft, I’m faced with one of the big and difficult ones: what should I write about next? My prior projects mostly began with . . .
Read MoreN.K. Jemisin’s MasterClass is sixteen short modules on speculative fiction writing, from worldbuilding to characterization, to finding an agent and publishing your work. I’ve done a few MasterClasses in the past, …
Read MoreGeorge Saunders’ new craft book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, dissects seven stories from Russia’s literary greats, including Chekhov and Tolstoy. I’m such a fan of Saunders and have been looking forward to the release of this book for a long time . . .
Read MoreOne of the many writing “rules” that I always hear about—and one that seems to be raised and relitigated on Twitter ever so often—is never use second-person point-of-view. It’s difficult to write, difficult to sell, and difficult to read. Allegedly. …
Read MoreThis week, I picked up Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses, and reading it has been both a breath of fresh air and a sobering experience. As a new and self-taught writer, most of my instruction comes from craft books, and…
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