Writers' craft

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

What's plot? Discover the definition of plot, different types of plots, the various elements of a great plot including Vonnegut's story shapes!

Writers who find themselves mired in procrastination would do well to take a page from Marcel Proust's most famous book. Specifically, a page from In Search of Lost Time in manuscript form.  Read more

How to write dialogue is one of the first things a budding storyteller can master with just a bit of practice and effort. That's not to say that writing dialogue is easy- it's not. But, once you realize the purpose of dialogue in a story and hone in on all those pesky formatting rules, it can become intuitive.  Read more

One of my greatest thrills as a college student was when I was let into the intermediate-level creative writing workshop. You couldn't just sign up and walk in-you had to submit a short story good enough for the professor to deem you worthy. That first day, I sat around the rectangular table with my future colleagues and was handed a set of rules for the class.  Read more