We love the zing of a snappy line, the mournful tones of a somber one, the cadence of a staccato beat of dialogue. Once you’re hooked on language, it’s a drug.
Category: Craft
Our Craft column archive, which features an array of guest contributors.
Craft: Finding the Time to Write by Ally Bishop, Reviews Editor
Writing is like any relationship. You have to spend time on it and nurture it in order for it to stay healthy and grow. So it is no wonder that the longer we avoid it, the more terrifying it becomes.
Craft: Working on My Rewrite by Risa Nye
Changing titles and endings are just the beginning: spade work. Working on a rewrite requires serious machinery—the type of heavy equipment that allows us to dig deep and plow ahead.
Craft: In the Mood by Risa Nye
So what gets you in the mood? For writing, I mean. Does the muse give you an early morning wake-up call, or is nighttime the right time? Do you get those urges at mid-day? Or are you liable to go at it any time, day or night?
The Writing Life: How I Joined the Working Class & Yet Also Maintained My Sanity and Lofty Literary Goals; or How Following Virginia Woolf’s Instructions Is Tricky by Hilary Meyerson
A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. – Virginia Woolf — Women writers just love old Ginny. We quote her chestnut about the ‘room of one’s own’ at the drop of a pen. The quote isn’t limited to fiction, but writing in general. Usually, it’s centered around the “room” part – the need for a physical space
Craft: Reading Between the Lines in “Someone Like You” — What’s writing got to do with it? by Risa Nye
… appoggiaturas generate “tension in the listener,” … it’s this tension and release that results in the “tears and chills” of deep emotion.
As writers, we can’t rely on appoggiaturas to elicit this type of response in a reader…or can we?
Craft: Habits by Donna Steiner
I spoke with some young writers yesterday. They happen to be poets, and had just read a couple of chapters from The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser. We were talking about establishing good writing habits, and one student said, “I always make sure it’s quiet where I’m writing, and I try to make…
The Writing Life: the unruled page by mensah demary
i allow myself many vices: cigarettes, more cigarettes, various Apple products [my apartment is wired to Apple’s hive mind], and Moleskine journals. while i don’t believe in the so-called “writing life,” there is value in journaling one’s thoughts. i guess. still, i buy Moleskines because somewhere in my reptile brain, a $17 journal makes me more of a writer than, say, a $0.99 notebook from Walgreens.
Craft: So What? by Risa Nye
A couple of years ago, a writer friend of mine told me about one of his old high school English teachers who owned a lethal pair of personalized rubber stamps. One read “So what?” and the other, “Who cares?” Ouch… Harsh? Perhaps.
Craft: Falling Memories by Risa Nye
Ask a group of adults what they remember about the first day of school and you’ll get a wide range of responses—everything from excitement and anticipation to anxiety and dread. Can you remember anything about your first day of fifth grade? What about your first day as a senior in high school, when, finally, you made it to the top of the heap?
