There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there about characters. Do you make them quirky and unusual (like Amelia Bedelia), or more ordinary (like Charlie Brown)? Do you make them heroic (someone readers might aspire to be, like Atticus Finch), or deeply flawed (like FH in Jesus’s Son)? Do you make them raw and human […]
The single best piece of writing advice I ever got was to write the book you most want to read (more on that here). After that, here are six other bits of writing advice that have made the biggest difference for me (and that I need to keep reminding myself of to keep on going). […]
“No vision is real until it’s enacted upon the earth for the people to see.” —Black Elk I love writers and poets and artists and musicians and all those crazy dreamers who have the guts to enact a vision and put it out in the world for the people to see. But the world is rarely […]
Putting our English Degrees to work by tackling life’s persistent mysteries… The Song: “Your Love” by The Outfield The Lyric: “I just want to use your love tonight. I don’t want to lose your love tonight.” The Problem: Those pesky pronouns. Whose love does the speaker want to “use”? Whose love does s/he fear losing? Possible Interpretations: A) We’ll […]
The question gets asked over and over again in the wake of a suicide. It goes something like this, “How could he decide to kill himself?” I heard people ask this dozens of times in various forms when Robin Williams died. And when Ned Vizzini, author of It’s Kindof a Funny Story (and other fabulous […]
