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 week's post is part of the monthly Author Toolbox Blog Hop. Check out others' great posts about the craft and business of writing! I first encountered Haruki Murakami through his short story collection The Elephant Vanishes. These stories of middle-class life in Japan were bizarre, esoteric, often difficult to get my mind around. The... Continue Reading →
This post is part of the monthly #AuthorToolboxBlogHop. Read more great posts about writing here! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. The Great Gatsby, Chapter 5 I'm teaching The Great Gatsby this term,... Continue Reading →
Not a writing-related post today, at least not explicitly. I'm departing tomorrow for summer travels. We'll be in Italy, and my plan is to make a large amount of time while we're there for writing. Best wishes to you, with love,Jimmy Bird tracks, April 13, 2013 In November of 2016, my computer crashed. Just a... Continue Reading →
I've been working on a short story recently. Unlike most of what I've been writing the last few years, it's solid realism. I didn't expect this to make it a particular challenge for me, but as I have been slogging my way through outlines, a first draft of one-and-a-quarter scenes, doubt has besieged me of... Continue Reading →
This post is part two of two in a series on worldbuilding. To read part one, click here. Last week, we explored how to plan and develop a speculative world, how we must situate ourselves along a continuum between the real and the absurd, how we can tie into existing cultural concepts while still making... Continue Reading →
When I taught creative writing to high school students in Minnesota, one of my favorite lessons involved a semi-choral reading of Annie Dillard's "The Death of a Moth." I gave students an excerpt from the essay (you can find the excerpt at the bottom of this post and the full essay at the link above)... Continue Reading →
For those of us in Western cultures and the Middle East, there are few foods more staple than bread. We might not even notice the bread as we swim through grocery store aisles (shoutout to Hannah Whiteoak's "Earth Report"), throw a sandwich in our lunchboxes, proclaim some sensational new dip at a party... Onion focaccia.... Continue Reading →
Words like trees 