The first line of your memoir (or essay or novel) might come to you early on, fully formed. Or it might be a line you compose late in your drafting cycles. Either way, at some point you’ll have to evaluate it for the work it’s doing. Your opening sentence is a tone-setter, and you want…
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…
Michael Crichton famously said (although he wasn’t the first to say it), “Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten.” This idea that a piece of writing becomes the best version of itself, maybe even a new version of itself, in the process of revision is as true for blog posts as it is for bestsellers. In this…