Writing Tools
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
Something to Do with Work as Play: David Foster Wallace and “The Nature of the Fun”
Kristopher Jansma
I find it remarkably comforting that someone who had recently finished a 1,079 page novel ends up right back where any young student does, trying...
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
Keeping Up the Pace
Alison Gaylin
For every one of my books, there’s been a ‘cut file,’ sometimes hundreds of pages long, of stuff that (much as I may have loved...
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
Scenes & Summary
Patricia Park
“For years I took the old creative writing adage of ‘show, don’t tell’ to heart. I’d detail every trip my characters took...
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
An Unfunny Essay About Humor
Mike Scalise
Very often, the most effective humor in writing doesn’t come from a clever concept, or a turn of phrase, or a one-liner, or a bit of killer dialogue
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
Say Yes to Obsession
Molly Prentiss
Obsession is a large part of being human, and therefore a large part of writing about being human. As writers, we are taught to write toward our...
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
How to Steal Stuff
Elizabeth Gaffney
My first theft was almost an accident. It was a pair of clip-on rhinestone earrings, glittery and bright….I put them on…somehow, I...
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
Writing to the Tension
Andrea Chapin
If you have an idea for a short story or a novel and want to get started, write a scene that feels urgent, important, and essential
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
How Walter White Can Make You a Better Writer
Martha Southgate
I’m proud to admit that I was and am an obsessive fan of Breaking Bad. When Walt, Jesse and all their friends left us on that Sunday night three...
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
Inventing Time
Laura van den Berg
Time frames our experience in the world, yet time is never stable: it is always moving. This morning, I walked my dog from Carroll Gardens to...
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Writing ToolsWriters on Writing
Three-Dimensional Writing
Alison Gaylin
I love a good suspense story—the type of dark, twisting tale that keeps me on the edge of my seat, turning pages, barely able to wait for what happens next