TL:DR: Here’s the syllabus. (Links are clickable and they’ll get you to the “readings”, tutorials, etc.) This last semester I got to teach a class fully focused on digital storytelling for the first time. I’d been adding units on digital stories and essays to my composition and creative writing classes for many years, but thisContinue reading “Digital Storytelling for Creative Writers”
Category Archives: craft
A Beginner’s Guide to Publishing
If you’re just here for the publishing handout and would prefer not to read my rambling lamentations about leaving teaching, here ya go! This summer will be the first summer since I turned 21 that I won’t be readying syllabi for my fall courses. The details are complex and, frankly, boring, but after a lot of thought, my partnerContinue reading “A Beginner’s Guide to Publishing”
Fighting Title-Block
My FFC column this month is inspired by this post by Thomas Kearnes, where he discusses his five favorite and least favorite titles. I think we all struggle with finding the right title for a story at some time or another. The title is the story’s first impression and there are naturally feelings of pressureContinue reading “Fighting Title-Block”
Describing Your First Person Narrator
Re-blogged from my monthly column over at Flash Fiction Chronicles. Among the challenges presented by writing in first person point of view, one of the toughest (for this writer at least) is describing your first person narrator. Offering details about a character’s age, physical appearance, and clothing is a great way to build that character,Continue reading “Describing Your First Person Narrator”
Fixed Form Narratives
Reposting this piece on Fixed Form Narratives from my monthly column over at Flash Fiction Chronicles. I have a new column there on the first Monday of every month. Here’s April’s! In my English classes in high school, I was never one for sonnets or villanelles. I found them to be a bit too restrictiveContinue reading “Fixed Form Narratives”
Making Metaphor
First of all, very glad to even be able to type the word “metaphor” today. On Saturday, I poured a very full glass of water directly into the keyboard of my shiny new laptop. It was mostly fine, but not all of the keys recovered. I had to spend the next 24 hours using theContinue reading “Making Metaphor”
A Fiction Writer’s Guide to Poetry
I consider myself to be primarily a prose writer, but I have dabbled a bit in poetry. It’s fun. It’s short. And publishers can fit more of it on the same number of pages, so I’ve found it to be easier to market (not “easy,” just “easier”). Plus, it’s good to be versatile: Sometimes somethingContinue reading “A Fiction Writer’s Guide to Poetry”
Dzanc Day! Dzig it!
I’m very happy to be co-leading a workshop for this year’s Dzanc Day, a day when writers, editors and teachers donate their time and talents to raise money for some of Dzanc Books‘ more charitable endeavors. These include the Dzanc Prize, which recognizes one writer annually for literary excellence and service to his or herContinue reading “Dzanc Day! Dzig it!”
How to Avoid Avoiding Plot
I wrote the brief craft essay below, about common traps that keep writers from writing well-plotted flash fiction, for Flash Fiction Chronicles. I’m currently teaching a flash fiction course and my students and I have spent a fair amount of class time discussing the borderlands between flash fiction and prose poetry. While I agree that there’sContinue reading “How to Avoid Avoiding Plot”
Never Again & Word Choice
Doug Nufer’s book Never Again has only just come to my attention, despite being published in 2002 (apparently). As the title hints, Nufer uses any given word only once—never again. I only read enough of the book to see how this constraint would work, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Most ofContinue reading “Never Again & Word Choice”
Aubrey Hirsch 