less is more…unless it’s more
I’m a fan of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style; it’s one of the few physical books I want nearby so I can leaf through it on demand. The demand, however, arises quite often...
Tagged: writing
status check
My current project is a collection of stories (or narratives, or memoirs, or whatever the hell you want to call them). Three are finished, one more is close. Four stories, 18K words. If a...
it’s never that simple
So my next story, Aisle Five, Halfway Down, Top Shelf, is approaching “done.” Extraneous crap removed, structural flaws resolved, ambiguities clarified. Most importantly, it passed the Liza test; she laughed. Now proofing and polishing,...
one day your story will be read by thousands…but it is not this day.
One Story: Thank you for sending us “Venite Adoremus”. We really enjoyed this piece, but we didn’t feel it was right for One Story. We hope that you will continue to send us your...
Mr. Tuffles Will See You Now
The #redditwriters group has held several write-ins on their slack channel now, and I’ve been in a few of them. The format is usually something like a 5 minute warm-up, a 20 minute prompt,...
welcome back, my friends, to the edit that never ends
Editing Driving Lessons some more. Really missing the funny in some places– it’s harder than it looks. And what the hell was I thinking, concocting a word like “mythofecalconfectionate”? Get over yourself, Pen– come...
what is this “done” word you speak of? I know it not.
I made the mistake of rereading my story, Driving Lessons, after having left it alone for several months. Yeah. Smart. I found a few things that scream “what the hell were you thinking, first...
why we write
On twitter, another writer tagged me in a chainmeme with the question, “why do you write?” It’s not an easy question, the more you dig down. There are layers and layers. Like a frog....
submit!
I’m submitting my story, Venite Adoremus, to several literary magazine contests that end within the next several days. For the most part, I think my chances aren’t that great– I’m submitting essentially narrative memoir/story...
it’s here! it’s here! it’s– crap.
Glimmer Train Thank you so much for sending “Venite Adoremus.” This July/August 2017 Fiction Open drew an extraordinary batch of stories—the competition was tough. Your story didn’t place this time, but we enjoyed reading...
