The ability to describe is the key to great storytelling, but when it comes to depicting characters, our first impulse is often to go straight to the basics (height, hair color, clothing) and leave it at that. It’s not that those descriptions are bad, it’s just that they provide surface-level characterization rather than truly characterizing. Dwight Swain, in his book…
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Beyond Tall, Dark, and Handsome: How to Describe Your Characters
Pro Tips for Shopping a Used Book Fair
I recently learned that the Japanese have a word—“tsundoku”—for the habit of buying reading material and letting it pile up. I love that someone named this phenomenon. I adore my baskets of magazines, shelves of books, and nightstand pile. Until now, my word for this has been “decorating.” Every new book in my hands is a new chance to learn…
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A Brief Defense of Using a Thesaurus
You may not even know that the humble thesaurus comes under attack, but it does. The topic arose this week when a writer tweeted a question asking other writers how they feel about using a thesaurus. Almost everyone who responded said they were down with them and why. But someone reminded me who it was who’d stirred up some trouble…
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Some of My Favorite Essays from Brevity Magazine
The single resource I’ve used the most in my writing classes might be Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction. The site is jam-packed with short nonfiction pieces and craft essays that are quick to read as well as fun, moving, and instructional. Editor-in-chief Dinty W. Moore is someone you might want to follow on social (he’s a great source…
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Don’t Know What to Write About? Choose Something Mundane
Some writers are never at a loss over what to write about, and some find themselves frequently stuck in the unpleasantness that comes from a blank page and no writing ideas. This is why so many of my students ask me for writing prompts. If you find yourself stuck, with no writing prompt in sight, I suggest you lower the…
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