Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite American authors. I love how so many of his stories are dark, creepy, and suspenseful, but they never quite cross the line into outright, over-the-top gore. Poe also is brilliant at writing unreliable narrators, people who believe their motivations are reasonable and their actions justified, even when… Read more »
We’re back with another three-act analysis, this time of the French classic, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This book has been a long-time favorite of mine, and like Animal Farm it has a great deal of allegory and symbolism woven into it, though it is decidedly less pessimistic and has a tone that… Read more »
“Read with purpose” is one of the three pillars of DIY MFA, but it’s often the most overlooked. It’s easy to see how writing and community can contribute to our literary development, but sometimes reading can fall by the wayside. Today I wanted to talk about the importance of reading with purpose, what exactly it… Read more »
Today, I’m doing an analysis of Beauty and the Beast, one of my absolute favorite movies. This film never fails to tug at my heartstrings and the ending makes me cry every single time! I first saw this movie at a very pivotal moment in my life. I was in ninth grade and a total… Read more »
I’ve been thinking a lot about all the writing resources that are out there on the web—both free and not free. This got me wondering: “How do we manage it all? How do we tell what’s good from what’s not? And how do we know our time and money will be well spent?” In other… Read more »
One of my favorite short stories is Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, which is probably one of the most tightly plotted narratives of all time. Barely two pages long, this story incorporates all three acts, plus the pivot points, midpoint, climax, and denouement. It doesn’t miss a single beat and it does all… Read more »
Have you ever played Myst? It’s an immersive adventure video game from 1993 and I was obsessed with it when I was in high school. It was a time long before you could easily Google for clues or hints, so it took me months to solve all the puzzles. I remember when I finally figured… Read more »
I thought I’d go back to the basics and talk about how to DIY your MFA. If you’re here, reading this newsletter, I know you’re serious about your writing. This is true whether you just started on your writing journey or you’ve been at it for some time. I know this because DIY MFA attracts… Read more »
I find it very difficult to name a favorite type of mystery, but it just might be puzzle mysteries. They scratch a cognitive itch. Solving them, whether in a book, an app, or a video game, feels so satisfying. Plus, they’re just fun. In the past, some leveled the criticism that puzzle mysteries lacked in… Read more »
I am an unapologetically voracious reader, but that wasn’t always the case. When I first started writing seriously I eschewed all forms of creativity other than my own. Nuts to all that read your genre, read widely nonsense. Why? Something about not wanting to be influenced by other people’s work, or some such malarkey. And… Read more »
