Columns

Poem Shmoem: How to Write Poetry

April 26th, 2023

I have writers asking me all the time to write about writing poetry, and the question always makes me want to run. I don’t know how to write poetry, but I do write and publish a lot of it. My fans seem to really like it, and say things like, ‘wow, you really are a brilliant poet, some of your lines are genius.’ What? Well, thank you. Really, thank you thank you thank you. But to me it’s just the way my brain works and it doesn’t seem like genius and I don’t feel like I’m brilliant.

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"Lack of Character Development" is Not Always A Problem

April 24th, 2023

Header image: Andrea Piacquadio Zero stars, lacks character development. “Lack of character development” is a great thing to put on a negative review because it makes it sound like you know what you’re talking about when you definitely don’t know what you’re talking about.

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Storyville: Anthology Calls—How to Write to Theme, and Stand Out in a Crowd

April 21st, 2023

Over the years, I’ve been published in quite a few anthologies—sometimes cold calls via submissions, and other times from a private invite. But every time I send a story in to an editor, there are things I think about, and consider, as I try to address the theme, stay true to my voice, and yet still stand out in a crowd. Here are some tips from my experiences.

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How Poetry Can Help You Strengthen Your Novel

April 13th, 2023

If you find yourself feeling stuck or uninspired while writing a novel, turning to poetry may not be your first choice to break through writer’s block, but it can be an invaluable tool. After all, poetry is an ancient art, shared through song and oral recitation before it was ever written down. From epics to blackout poetry, and from odes to modern slam, this form of communication continues to evolve and change. Poetry as a method of storytelling has been in our blood for thousands of years.

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How To Read Bad Reviews of Your Book Without Ruining Your Life

April 11th, 2023

Image from pixabay Yeah, I know, you’re not supposed to read reviews of your own book. You know what else you're not supposed to do? Eat pizza until you fall asleep on the floor because the pepperoni bloat makes the trip to the bed impossible. You're not supposed to ride motorcycles in flip-flops. Turns out, you're not really supposed to drink booze. Like, at all!

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National Encourage a Young Writer Day is Here

April 10th, 2023

Image by Olia Danilevich Happy National Encourage a Young Writer Day! What a fun holiday to celebrate.

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For National School Librarian Day, Let's Show Our Appreciation

April 4th, 2023

Original image by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi If you’ve ever wished you could thank a school librarian, today’s the day: it’s National School Librarian Day. School librarians are essential, important members of kids and young adults’ educational careers. They not only research appropriate books for their schools; they also make sure those books are kept in good condition and ready to be loaned out to students. They teach kids important lessons on literacy and how to research.

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Foolkiller: The Strange, Forgotten Marvel Anti-Hero

April 3rd, 2023

When you tell people you like 90s comics, they assume it’s because of the grittiness, the way anti-heroes were cool before TSwift, the belts with endless pouches, the belt pouches even occasionally strapped to a character’s thigh, just in case there weren’t enough pouches. They make fun of Rob Liefeld’s drawing style, especially the feet he drew. All of a sudden, everyone’s a foot fetishist.

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Storyville: Are You Ready to Write a Novel?

March 27th, 2023

I’ve been teaching now for about six years, getting my MFA back in 2012, and writing for over fifteen years in total. In that time, I’ve published over 170 stories (134 originals), in four collections, as well as four novels. I ran Gamut magazine for a few years, and Dark House Press as well, publishing eight books. So, I’ve been around the block a few times. Today, I’d like to bring all of that experience (good and bad) to this conversation so we can chat about whether or not you are ready to write a novel.

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Taxonomies for Storytelling

March 23rd, 2023

Header image by Roy Christopher Story structure helps us recognize a story as a story, but how are there so many stories? How do they stay interesting to us if all of them have the same basic structure? I feel like another task of a good story is to overload our perceptive buffer and sneak the rest of the goods in unnoticed. But how?

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