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….
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…
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…
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…
Some writers are never at a loss over coming up with writing ideas, and some find themselves frequently stuck in the unpleasantness that comes from a blank page and no idea what to write about. This is why so many of my students ask me for writing prompts. If you find yourself stuck, with no…