writing well

In Which Herman Melville Seeks Critique in an Internet Forum
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In Which Herman Melville Seeks Critique in an Internet Forum

There’s an online writing activity I like about as much as having someone else floss my teeth—posting the first line of a story in internet forums to receive critique from whoever’s willing to help. This practice is common on Reddit; I’ve also seen these threads in Facebook groups that are otherwise valuable places for writers…

Writing Spooky Stories
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Writing Spooky Stories

People love spooky stories—from cozy-creepy to hard-core horror. As a reader, it’s exciting to see how story people react when put in danger, to indulge our curiosity without real world consequences, to experience fear from a safe place. As with humor, horror works by subverting the familiar. In comedy that might come from an insertion…

The Mother-Daughter Book Club #3—Foe and I’m Thinking of Ending Things, by Ian Reid
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The Mother-Daughter Book Club #3—Foe and I’m Thinking of Ending Things, by Ian Reid

[You can check out the first Mother/Daughter Book Club post if you’re interested in reading thoughts from me and daughter Evelyn on Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, Haruki Murakami’s After Dark, and This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. The second installment is all about Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara…