Whether you’re enrolled in Creative Writing 101 or you’re working on your tenth novel, you’ve probably been told to “show, don’t tell.” But what does your teacher/editor/agent/critique group actually mean when advising you to show rather than tell?
What is “Reflection” in Creative Nonfiction?
For the most part, novelists and memoirists use the same set of tools to tell their stories. They both create vivid scenes, develop three-dimensional characters, and evoke a strong sense of place. They rely on dialogue, effective pacing, and themes. But there is one tool that is used almost exclusively…
And Now for Something Completely Different
I have spent the last seven years in the composition classroom pouring my time, my energy, and my self into my students’ writing. I have sat through countless hours of committee meetings, faculty meetings, division meetings, task force meetings, curriculum meetings. I have trained dozens of writing tutors, advised hundreds…
Some Whining
“You have to write every day. You just have to. If you aren’t always thinking about your story, you’re not getting anywhere. If you get away from the thing you’re working on, it takes a long time to settle back into the immersion.” –Chad Harbach while speaking at Lakeland College…
Send Shit Out Night
I have been submitting my work to literary journals since 2003 (although only recently have they begun to publish me; the photo at right depicts my stack of rejection letters next to the seventh Harry Potter book, for scale, and these are only the hard copy rejections — there are plenty more…
The Importance of First Lines
Compare: Gregor Samsa was a cockroach when he woke up one morning. vs. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. Same idea, but a world of difference. Read them out loud. (Go ahead — nobody’s listening.)…