Thoughts about writing, and the universe.
My biggest questions about stories the last few years have been focused on structure. What is the role of conflict? Do all stories really follow the same dramatic structures, or is this an oversimplification? What alternative story structures might exist (such as Kishลtenketsu), and how do they function in different cultural contexts? When I asked... Continue Reading →
This last week I participated in an online short story course. One Story's Write a Short Story with Hannah Tinti was an engaging, entertaining, but most of all practically useful one-week course, though which we explored a basic structure for short story writing. This was the first class I've done with One Story, and I... Continue Reading →
This week's post forms part of the monthly Author Toolbox Blog Hop, in which writers at all stages of their careers come together to share knowledge. It's a good group. Check out the posts of others here. In this second week of school this year, our student creative writing group commenced. Two budding student leaders... Continue Reading →
This week's post is part of the monthly Author Toolbox Blog Hop. Check out posts by other writers about writing craft and industry. It is a good community and a good resource. #AuthorToolboxBlogHop The longer I poke at things I long believed about writing, the more they crumble like a log long on the fire.... Continue Reading →
Last week, I began reading Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty, a brilliant tour of Thatcher-era upperclass London, narrated in close third-person focus on unabashed gay hedonist Nick Guest. Although the window into Nick's world is undoubtedly fascinating, it is Hollinghurst's writing that I have been most entranced by. And that's what I'd like to... Continue Reading →
This post was part of the #AuthorToolboxBlogHop event. Every month, save November and December, we posted tips for writers on our respective blogs. Although the hop is no longer running, check out these other great writing blogs here! Other posts on figurative language: Personification and Zoomorphism Synecdoche and Metonymy Figurative language: all those saying-something-we-don't-means, the... Continue Reading →
Words like trees 