Craft and Creativity
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What I’ve Learned from 19th Century Novels
Chances are, you were forced to read 19th century novels in high school—and, chances are, you might have hated reading them. Well, I did anyway. No one really explained to me the importance of reading Charles Dickens, so reading Charles Dickens was rather aggravating. My Junior year, I started to appreciate Victorian literature when I…
The World as Writing Prompt: 9 Ways to Invent Inspiration
Look around you, whether just glancing across your kitchen table or taking in the building thunderheads and blossoming lilac right outside your window. The world is our writing prompt, and not just the world supposedly external to us: the worlds of our memories, insights, and connections can spark new poems, stories, essays, and more as…
When a Life Becomes a Story: Balancing Emotional Truth & Narrative Skill
While I’m primarily a fiction writer, I love to read memoir. The in-depth peek into someone’s private life fascinates me. I always feel a bit like Dorothy pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz. Over the past couple of months, I’ve read three memoirs by three different women, and what struck me most…