If there’s one thing to be said about passive stories, it’s that they’re boooooring. The reader is either asleep or has moved on to something else. The narrative reads like a summary of what happened—the version you’d tell someone on the phone—not one where the reader is immersed and feels like they’re experiencing the events themselves. It’s a common problem for writers and one that takes practice to address. Here is a story written in passive style: We made cupcakes … Read More »

Much like the desserts I love this time of year, the writing I enjoy the most has layers. In writing (not dessert) I specifically enjoy the text, the subtext, and the metatext. Each has its place in different mediums: print, formal digital writing, and blog posts. When writing, it is important to consider all three levels and if your piece is the place for it. The Text Text is exactly what it sounds like. It is the printed (or digital) … Read More »

Starting a piece of writing is easy, isn’t it? We just start at the beginning. That sounds so simple, until we sit down to write the first draft. For instance, we start off saying, “This idea or event would make a great story/novel.” But we still have to untangle WHY that event or story was worthy of all the words we will set down, to ourselves and to the reader. That is often the place we want to start, but … Read More »

One of my blogging colleagues recently listed, among various aids to self-editing, the suggestion to read aloud one’s manuscript. I would like to follow up that idea with a few reflections, because it seems to me that reading aloud is the key to (almost) everything writerly. What is the Written Word? What is writing, after all, but preserving in a permanent, coded form someone’s speech? The ancient Egyptians viewed it as such a mystery that they called writing “the speech … Read More »

Drafting is essential to creating good work. With each rewrite and revision, the superfluous words and ideas are winnowed away, while the story comes into focus. But you know what is necessary before you do all that time consuming and tedious drafting? Prewriting. I love prewriting. Prewriting is that exciting process where ethereal ideas becomes nascent story. The possibilities are endless. Before I write a story, I put together an outline with important story beats and note where themes will … Read More »

Let’s get in the Halloween spirit this week by examining horror, the all-encompassing genre of fear. Within horror exists many sub-genres including supernatural, slasher, sci-fi, zombie, humor, survival, and many more, yet for this discussion we’ll focus on psychological horror. Horror has evolved over hundreds of years from eternal damnation and supernatural monsters to the evil hiding inside our own minds. One of the first examples of horror writing was the description of the nine rings of Hell in Dante’s … Read More »