Ask any writer for writing advice and most often you’ll get one of two words of advice. First, show, don’t tell. There are hundreds if not thousands of books and blog articles dedicated to this sage adage. The second piece of advice, however, often gets taken with that proverbial grain of salt – if you want to be a good writer, you need to read! Got it. Good writers read. But, what does that mean? With everyone gathering up their … Read More »

The economics and financial strains of our global pandemic crisis cannot be avoided. We’re all feeling it. If we’re fortunate enough to be employed, our situations have still changed. Many of our day jobs have transitioned to remote-location jobs. Except for journalists, by and large, writing has always been a remote job, so many of us already had a knack for adapting. If you write fiction, you may have already been able to write your stories without ever leaving home, … Read More »

Every few months I like to assess my writing and see where I’ve struggled. Did I have problems developing plot, creating relatable characters, or perhaps building a fantastical world? Where ever my struggles may lie, I choose one to try to improve upon. As an educator, I’ve come to appreciate that there are a few fundamental tricks when it comes to teaching (and thus, learning.) First, the same approach doesn’t work for all students, so approaching the material in different … Read More »

Lost in the murk of pandemic this April is our annual Earth Day. It shouldn’t be. The health crisis is the new baseline for discussion of almost everything, including environmental issues, and by extension, writing about environment. We all want COVID-19 to just go away and stop killing and let us get back to the business of living. Yet a captivating side effect of the virus has arisen. Earth, it seems, has gotten a chance to draw a breath. In … Read More »

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world. This is our 24th year of praising poetry in April. The poet and physician William Carlos Williams (1883 – 1963) expressed poetry’s value this way: “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there.” … Read More »

I don’t know about you, but my writing has gone downhill since COVID-19 starting making its ripples felt here in the good ‘ole US of A. Within days after spring break, my university closed its doors to in-person instruction, and I’ve had to transition my entire curriculum to an online format (a rather arduous task, I might add.) On top of that, I’ve been busy with everything related to COVID. It’s been an exhausting few weeks and the uncertainty of … Read More »