Why You Should Write Short Stories

Last week, I wrote about the 1950 film All About Eve and how much I love the way its ending mirrors its beginning. The screenplay for All About Eve is based on a short story, “The Wisdom of Eve,” written by American author Mary Orr (1910-2006). In fact, a lot of great films are based … Read More

The Connection Between Beginnings and Endings

Spoiler alert: I’m going to discuss the beginnings and endings of Celeste Ng’s novel Everything I Never Told You, Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, and the classic 1950 film All About Eve, screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. I won’t give away the ending of Ng’s novel specifically, in terms of what happens in the story, but … Read More

Does Your Character Have Agency?

In her poetry collection Call Us What We Carry, poet Amanda Gorman writes, “Change is made of choices, and choices are made of character.” Gorman is a writer and is the youngest inaugural poet in US history. But she wasn’t referring to the craft of writing when she wrote this. She was writing about the … Read More

A Writer Is Someone Who Writes

In honor of National Poetry Month, I’d like to share a poem with you, writers. For copyright reasons, I can’t reprint it here, but it’s published in full on the Poetry Foundation website. It’s called “For the young who want to,” and it’s about being an artist. It was written by novelist, poet, and memoirist … Read More

The Proportion Problem

I had a lightbulb moment the other day—I realized that I picked up some of my bad writing habits from classic literature, and I realized these bad habits aren’t necessarily bad but bad for the time. One of my worst writing habits, which I often see in my clients’ writing, is improper balance or proportion. … Read More

Published: A Craft Guide

Some friends of mine over at Kelp Journal got together and wrote Published: A Craft Guide, a series of essays by current and former Kelp Journal editors on crafting fiction submissions that stand out. Edited by Kelp Journal managing editor A.E. Santana, Published offers essays on topics including structure, point of view, dialogue, characters, suspense, voice, genre, and living with … Read More