Dialogue at Cross-Purposes
Dialogue is the one of tools we have for showing us who the characters are and how they relate to each other. The best dialogue includes some amount of subtext and conflict. One of the good ways to get at…
Author: CRAFT
CRASH COURSE, Robin Black
Crash Course, Robin Black Engine Books, 2016 This lovely collection houses a series of essays on writing and on life. Many of the short essays live in the place where writing and life intersect, and as the book progresses, you…
Online Writing Classes
One of the best ways to work on your craft is to participate in a writing class. Depending on where you live, though, it may be hard to find a good in-person workshop or class. Luckily, there are many good…
New Books Out This Week!
Here’s a quick look at some of the great books out the week of October 9. Happy pub day to all! Marian Crotty, What Counts as Love University of Iowa Press From Publishers Weekly: “Crotty’s impressive debut collection is…
Secrets in Fiction
The word “secret” comes from the Latin verb secernere; se: to set apart and cernere: to sift. The etymology of the word seems particularly appropriate for fiction: as both readers and writers, we are always sifting through a story in…
Early October Books
Here’s a quick look at some of the great books out the week of October 2, 2017. Happy pub day to all! T.C. Boyle, The Relive Box Harper Collins From Publishers Weekly: “Settings for the 12 stories range from the…
Reflecting the Interior
Some of the great writers use little interiority. They focus, instead, on showing us how the character views the world. Through these moments—when we are looking through the character’s eyes at a room, a character, a landscape—we learn almost more…
SEVERAL SHORT SENTENCES ABOUT WRITING, Verlyn Klinkenborg
Several Short Sentences About Writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg Penguin Random House, 2012 There is much good advice in Klinkenborg’s book, and the way that it is written—in a series of sentences and passages—makes it an easy book to read. It feels…
Conflict in Dialogue
The word “conflict” is from the Latin verb confligere: con, together; and fligere, to strike. Many writers seem to be at home with the idea of togetherness: we usually create multiple characters in our fiction; we write stories with more…
Novel Structure: Multiple Points-of-View
In The Gypsy Moth Summer, Julia Fierro uses six different narrators to tell us the story of the inhabitants of a small island in New York during the summer of 1992. The novel is broken into five parts, with a…