I want to say a few words about point of view and narrative strategy in fiction, starting with Henry James, from whom I learned so much when I first began trying to teach myself a little about the art of…
Suspension of Disbelief by David Massey
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote of “the willing suspension of disbelief” as being necessary to the enjoyment of a dramatic or literary work. The auditor or reader, he said, has to suspend disbelief if he is to enter the world of…
Sound and Sense by David Massey
I am an autodidact, which means I probably know next to nothing about my chosen craft. I do, however, have a few things to share. I came late to an earnest reckoning with the art of fiction but have made…
Silencing Your Internal Editor by Wendi Dass
The internal editor is an issue for every writer. Either it doesn’t speak enough or it never shuts up. For most, it’s the latter, and this has been the case for me. I call my internal editor Helga, the name…
The Joys of Coming Late to the Table: An Older Writer Shares Life Advice by L Mari Harris
Confession: I am fifty years old, and even though I’ve been writing for decades, I did not start submitting my work until last year. I earned both my undergrad and graduate degrees in English Literature in the late 80s, where…
Guest Post: What to Remember While Time Traveling by Lisa Aldridge
My grandfather took me fishing when I was a little girl. I’ll never forget the thrill of catching my first fish and the utter horror at how that fish flopped around helplessly gasping for gill-filtered oxygen. Until the moment I…
Guest Post: Writing into the Void by Sarah Bradley
It’s something straight out of a science fiction novel: a dark and limitless expanse, full of bright stars, as foreign and intangible as any distant galaxy. It’s a kind of limbo, a gray area where my thoughts are made concrete…
Guest Post: Keeping the Writer-in-You Fed by Carol Park
In my previous blog I discussed the many mandates given writers about keeping up their writing life. I question whether these literary practices are actually absolute in nature. They are often touted with the same certainty as a college education….
Guest Post: Practicing the Literary Arts by Carol Park
I consider my practice of the literary arts routinely. Do you, dear writer? I’ll appreciate your comments. Being asked to write about my literary practices has galvanized me to think on this in a deeply personal and extended manner. It’s…
Guest Post: As Student Writers by Alena Zhang
We are often intimidated at the thought of putting our writing out into the world. Writing makes us vulnerable; reading someone’s poem is like peeking into their soul. Without writing, however, we would have no way to articulate the inner…
Writing that is Alive by Ron Clinton Smith
“If you bore yourself, you bore others,” a comedian friend told me years ago. It was true of the very off the wall stand up we were doing at the time, and I’ve lived by it both as a writer…
Guest Post: The Importance of a Writing Community by Francine Witte
Jack Kerouac famously said “be in love with your life. Every minute of it.” Certainly as writers, we try to embrace this notion. The creating, the expressing, the transformation of thought to word, the sharing of what we do with…