Autumn is my favorite time of year, and not just because of my birthday. School restarts. In many places, the world drenches itself in autumnal colors. Autumn gives earthy new start energy. In honor of new starts and beautiful changes, I’ve created a survey that I’d be so grateful if you filled out. This survey […]
Finding the perfect gift for the writer in your life can be tricky. Do they need another notebook? Probably not. Another pen? They’ve got a drawerful. This year, give them the gift that will truly inspire them: a gift certificate to a creative writing workshop! Why Gift Certificates are the Perfect Gift Ready to give […]
The first thing I ever heard in my first writing workshop was, “If you want to be a writer, you should write every day.” I interpreted this as If you want to be a published author, you must be utterly obsessed with writing. Since then, I’ve consistently heard variations on that refrain from workshop leaders, […]
How Do We Even Start? (Building Your Craft Classics Collection) When you’re building your collection of craft books, it’s good to cover lots of bases. Last time, we looked at George Saunders’s A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. This book took us on a fantastic journey into the heart of the short story […]
When I first started my sojourn into the writing world, I took a welcoming path: Fan Fiction. Most fan fiction authors were just like me: beginning writers, learning the craft and yearning to get their stories out of their heads and onto the page. Every once in a while, a new fanfic would come along […]
The reasons for writer’s block are as varied as the people who experience it. You may have no idea which direction to take your story. You may not know enough about your characters yet. Or maybe you received some cruel feedback. But today, I’ll be focusing on fear-based writer’s block. The voice that, when you […]
In the last year and a half, three of my friends died, two during the previous seven months. Aside from family, since 2016, I’ve lost five friends. My best friend passed away about a month and a half ago, and my world irrevocably changed. I could no longer support her, no longer text her, no […]
[Full disclosure, I work with Nicole, who asked me to write this article.] I’ve been writing stories since I was a kid. I always hoped that someone would see the spark in me and take me under their wing. A few years ago, I had a breakthrough on a story. I thought I nailed the […]
When I was 11 years old, I wanted to be a writer; specifically, a playwright. I wanted to be like Neil Simon, living in New York above an Italian deli run by a kindly old woman who would sneak me cannoli. I imagined I would ascend to my writing loft, careful not to knock over […]
CRAFT CLASSICS is Born One of the high points in my life was hearing novelist and poet Denis Johnson read his work and answer questions about writing. I remember when an audience member was in the middle of asking a question and Johnson interrupted to say, “… well, when I was reading through one of […]