When World Building, What Size is Your Canvas? If I were a painter, I would daub oil paint across a large canvas. I am not a miniaturist, not one for too much introspection. Back in my dancing days, my dance partner and I choreographed ambitious full-length productions with just the two of us. Later, as… Read more »
I call my first draft a “pile of words.” The first draft of anything is just about getting the words on the page, and those words don’t have to make a lot of sense. Between the time I shove that pile of words out of my brain and deliver a finished piece to an editor,… Read more »
Over the past two and a half years, I’ve worked as a freelance editor and had the pleasure of editing several middle grade books. I’ve also finished my first middle grade fantasy manuscript. But most of all, I’ve read dozens of middle grade books, and there’s something about each one that takes me back to… Read more »
A great novel is like a well-made house: it needs a sturdy structure, or it will eventually collapse. Unfortunately, that structure doesn’t just happen all on its own through some sort of divine story magic (boy, wouldn’t that be convenient). Instead, structure must be developed and applied with great care. Some authors create this structure… Read more »
What’s the hardest thing for you when you write? Besides actually sitting down to write. Many writers might say “starting a chapter”. If you’re one of them, Welcome! Let’s end this trouble, shall we? Entry hooks can be one of the hardest elements of a story to write, regardless of the genre. But if you… Read more »
When I first started seriously pursuing writing, I struggled, like many new beginners, with the preciousness of my prose. My early stories were bad. And, I knew it. After a few years, when I finally wrote a short piece I was proud of, it seemed incredibly precious and fragile. When I told a friend that… Read more »
I mean, really, what’s the point of writing? “WTAF?” is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately. What’s the point of crying, of protesting, of sharing my feelings online? What’s the point of trying to make my voice heard when it’s clear no one is interested in hearing it? With everything—and I mean,… Read more »
Trends! TikTok has some, and so does Instagram. And that is perhaps one of the few things writing a novel and social media have in common. Read on for more about the trends in speculative fiction. How trends can help you as an author 1. A Great Place to Start Let’s face it: when you… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Alexander Weinstein. Alexander is the author of the collections Universal Love and Children of the New World, which was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a best book of the year by NPR, Google, and Electric Literature. His fiction and interviews have… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Arch. Jeff grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he spent two of his high school years at a boarding school much like the one depicted in his debut novel Attachments, which we’ll be discussing today. In the ’70s, he studied film/tv/theater production at Emerson College in Boston… Read more »
