During a recent museum trip, I discovered how dazzling details make Takashi Murakami’s artwork magical. But you don’t have to incorporate a tiny self-portrait and a prized pet, like Murakami did in his painting Tan Tan Bo, aka Gerotan: Scorched by the Blaze in the Purgatory of Knowledge, into your own work to make it […]
The Dazzle Is In the Details Read More »
A “darling” is any part of a piece that isn’t essential. Darlings have the potential to steal the focus away from the heart of a story. Darlings can waste word count and break the special spell superb stories cast. Featuring, moving, or killing these beloved bits can free up word count, improve pacing, and keep
Focus Your Flash: Feature, Move, or Kill Your Darlings Read More »
They say there are rules for a reason. But who is this mysterious they, and do we really have to listen to them? Yes, and no. Helpful, right? When approaching writing conventions, there’s a complementary duality worth exploring. There are valid reasons we should adhere to established standards. There’s also a compelling argument for shaking
Breaking the Rules: Doing It With Intention and Style Read More »
There’s an odd phenomenon in literature: when presented with dragons and wizards in a mystical kingdom, the reader automatically accepts the fantastic elements. We understand the world offered is born wholly from imagination, and though we may not initially grasp the rules of this outlandish environment, we trust the author to show us how it
Metaphor or Magic: How to Get the Reader to Accept the Absurd Read More »
We’ve all seen it – a strong voice has a character leaping off the page, and a weak one can make them disappear. The concept of character voice sounds simple; it’s how the characters speak, right? That’s accurate, to a point. The problem is when the voice ends with the dialogue. THERE’S MORE TO IT
Character Voice: It’s Not Just What They Say Read More »
Soren was only a boy when I met him, a boy lost in the Forest of Souls. Princess Savine had taken me there, her newest pikka, to remind me of what happened to handmaidens who displeased her. Her skin was as dusky and golden as the marigolds strewn across the royal table, for on these
The Tiger’s Handmaiden Read More »
My current mess started the day I opened my email to find an unusual subject line in one of the headers. Your Payment to Middle Earth Has Been Accepted. Brutus, my purebred Labradoodle mutt, lifted his head from where he’d set it on my knee, his golden ears twitching.
Your Payment to Middle Earth Has Been Accepted Read More »
I died on a Tuesday, which wasn’t nearly as inconvenient as dying again on Thursday. The first death was clinical—heart stopped for six minutes during a valve replacement. But death, like most bureaucracies, has loopholes. The surgeons pulled me back and sent me home with blood thinners and instructions to “take
The Second Death of Wallace Porter Read More »
When I’d started the hike, solitude had felt like a gift—space to breathe, to let the silence scour away the months of second-guessing and what-ifs. Time to decide what comes next. Now, as stingy sunlight bled away, unease pooled under my ribs, spreading with every breath. Massive storm clouds, bellies swollen
Writers generally detest absence. Thus, we rush to explain what we believe readers need to know. But what if we give our audience just the right information and trust them to infer meaning? Worldbuilding through subtext offers a solution for immersive storytelling without spoon-feeding readers. Let’s analyze the mechanics and explore why this approach is
Worldbuilding Through Subtext Read More »
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