Many authors have day jobs that are completely unrelated to their writing. For example, Caitriona Lally, who wrote her novel while working as a janitor at her alma mater, Trinity College, which recently gave her a prestigious award for her novel Eggshells. The article about Lally mentions that she graduated with a degree in English… Read more »
“Aim high” is probably advice you’ve heard before. I sure have: my elementary school’s motto was aim high, be respectful, care for others, all admirable things to do. But not everyone will tell you to do so when it comes to your writing. There are the skeptics, those writers who want you to think that… Read more »
I admit it. The last few weeks I have been unfocused and out of it. I’ve avoided my writing for other activities. Maybe it’s the 100 degree weather or just navigating a return from the gratifying wanderlust of vacation, but it’s been all too easy to procrastinate instead of generate new writing or revise the… Read more »
Last year, I successfully pitched and submitted an essay to a well-known creative nonfiction magazine. It was an essay I’m proud of, one that was inspired by a Twitter thread originally posted by the editor I wrote for. But unfortunately the editor turned down my piece, because the ending didn’t have that unexpected element she… Read more »
In Hunger, Roxane Gay faces a litany of uncomfortable truths: the way we body shame, dismiss rape victims, and look to families who can sometimes increase the weight of our most private suffering when they don’t understand the entirety of the situation. Sometimes oversimplified as a memoir about gaining and losing weight, Hunger is so… Read more »
Besides actually doing the writing, I’ve found that the hardest part of forging a writing career is making goals. There are more opportunities now then there have ever been: you can submit to literary magazines, pitch to editors at almost any publication, apply for writing residencies, and, if the opportunity presents itself, go to graduate… Read more »
Do you remember the old advice you heard from writing teachers or craft books: make all five senses—taste, touch, sound, sight, and smell—part of the scene? It may not seem like it, but this advice invites you to write about the body in such a way that your readers feel physically present in the prose…. Read more »
You may have seen the title of this post and thought I was going to talk about travel writing. But that’s not the only genre of creative nonfiction in which you can write about place! A common misconception about writing about place in creative nonfiction is that you have to write about particularly exotic spaces…. Read more »
Recently, I wrote an essay about the sea glass I collected as a kid. This essay was a fun one to write because it was the type of piece that grew in complexity the more I spent time on it. Until I got encouragement from an editor to write the piece, I didn’t feel it… Read more »
While blogging is a prominent web genre, it’s not one that’s known for its standardization. Or so beginning writers seem to think. That’s primarily because writing in different situations takes on its own unique forms and conventions. While there are lots of people selling products and services on their blogs, not all bloggers have this… Read more »
