It’s October, and pumpkin spice latte is in the air. So is a renewed popular interest in one of America’s greatest poets, Emily Dickinson. And because she enjoyed a bit of the macabre in her work, let’s celebrate her this spooky month. We associate Edgar Allan Poe with anything simultaneously poetic and macabre, with obvious good reason. And Dickinson was undoubtedly influenced by Poe. Everyone read him, after all. And like him, Dickinson often explored darkness in her writing. A … Read More »

We often write best about the times and places we inhabit, filling our prose with the little details of our existences. To get there, we sometimes sprinkle the work with brand names. Stephen King does this to good effect, giving the work real-world flavor. His rationale—and it’s a good one—is that a person buys a Pepsi, not a soft drink. However, King runs the risk of readers a hundred years from now having no idea what he’s talking about when … Read More »

You’re sitting in an eatery in the Garden District in New Orleans, patting your belly after a fine meal of jambalaya, enjoying coffee and a beignet. If you’re easy-going, the cook might just add another beignet. A little something extra, no charge. Lagniappe, they call it. Feeling generous, you transfer that experience to your writing and throw in a little lagniappe at the end of your new novel. You add an epilogue. Don’t expect your editor to react with the … Read More »

I recently got back from Saint Petersburg, Russia. After jaw-dropping palaces and vodka shots, we had to buy a few of those little nested Russian dolls, the painted, hollow, wooden figurines that open to reveal smaller dolls within, which open to reveal still smaller ones. Once the vodka fog lifted, this got me to thinking about a largely overlooked writing tactic. Writing well from the point of view of your characters is a vital skill. Once in a while you … Read More »

If you write humor you’ll eventually be asked by some well-meaning clod, “Don’t you ever write anything serious?” Ouch. Maybe Jean-Clod is not well-meaning at all. His implication, that humor writing isn’t serious writing, is downright insulting. Writing well in any genre or style demands work. Actors get it. “Dying is easy, comedy is hard,” they tell you, an adage that applies as well to writing. Some people are naturally funny, but even they work at the craft of funny … Read More »

Like most writers and avid readers, I’ve got bookshelves straining under the weight of my happiness. Being a hunter-gatherer, I hunt and gather books. I rarely get rid of them. Under great duress I might loan one out, but I’ll require bank account information and a chip implanted in the borrower’s skull. I will track you down. But let’s zero in on those books about the act of writing. I’ve got thirty-something. Books on the art and craft. Style manuals. … Read More »