Writing Craft

One fact about writing stories is that we populate them with characters in various contexts—on a dilapidated farm, in an overcrowded city, on a sailboat out at sea. We put thought and time into shaping relevant scenes, but how often do we consider the flip-side of our writing reality: the context in which we do our work? What’s Our Writing-Context? Surely the time of day, the people we live with, and our nation’s societal/political environment affect our writing on some … Read More »

Much like the desserts I love this time of year, the writing I enjoy the most has layers. In writing (not dessert) I specifically enjoy the text, the subtext, and the metatext. Each has its place in different mediums: print, formal digital writing, and blog posts. When writing, it is important to consider all three levels and if your piece is the place for it. The Text Text is exactly what it sounds like. It is the printed (or digital) … Read More »

Starting a piece of writing is easy, isn’t it? We just start at the beginning. That sounds so simple, until we sit down to write the first draft. For instance, we start off saying, “This idea or event would make a great story/novel.” But we still have to untangle WHY that event or story was worthy of all the words we will set down, to ourselves and to the reader. That is often the place we want to start, but … Read More »

One of my blogging colleagues recently listed, among various aids to self-editing, the suggestion to read aloud one’s manuscript. I would like to follow up that idea with a few reflections, because it seems to me that reading aloud is the key to (almost) everything writerly. What is the Written Word? What is writing, after all, but preserving in a permanent, coded form someone’s speech? The ancient Egyptians viewed it as such a mystery that they called writing “the speech … Read More »

Drafting is essential to creating good work. With each rewrite and revision, the superfluous words and ideas are winnowed away, while the story comes into focus. But you know what is necessary before you do all that time consuming and tedious drafting? Prewriting. I love prewriting. Prewriting is that exciting process where ethereal ideas becomes nascent story. The possibilities are endless. Before I write a story, I put together an outline with important story beats and note where themes will … Read More »