Writers' craft

What is falling action? This is a question I ask myself about once a year. Why do I ponder falling action so regularly? Well, I teach junior high English, and nowhere does falling action have more importance than in the middle school English class. That's because falling action is part of Freytag's Model, the story pyramid, a standard structure that teachers use to introduce plot structure.  Read more

Paratext fascinates me to no end. I love looking and thinking about all of the pieces that comprise a book which aren't the actual narrative itself: the book's colophon, the book's description and flap copy, the author's biography, and the copyright page hold so much information about the book and its context that overlooking them feels wrong.  Read more

When I was 14 I shaved my head, stayed in a room alone for three days, and then dipped in the cool morning waters of the Ganges. It was all part of a common Indian ritual, a rite of passage between childhood and adolescence. The alone-in-a-room-for-three-days part was meant to be a time for contemplation and meditation, but I took it as an opportunity to read David Copperfield cover to cover.  Read more

Let's talk about the second person point of view, but first, let's talk about video games. Suppose you've played any video game in the past twenty years. In that case, you'll know there are two camera positions developers can use.  Read more

A few years ago at a Radcliffe Institute exhibit, I came across photos of a draft of what would become Angela Davis' autobiography. A foundational Black literary text, bare-boned and vulnerable, is not something you often get to see. The manuscript bloomed with the strokes of a blue pen, notes from the editor on what needed to be changed.  Read more