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How to Escape the Trap of Ideological Language
Extraordinary Rendition: (American) Writers on Palestine, edited by Ru Freeman, follows a vision of art stated by Edwidge Danticat: “It is both the artist’s burden and duty to witness what is going on...
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How to Give a Character a Job
Chaitali Sen’s The Pathless Sky updates the star-crossed lovers tale, in a novel set amid political turmoil and the possibility that geography and politics might still be overcome. Just as oceans cover...
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How to Create a Literary Touchstone
In his essay, “The Rebirth of Black Rage,” Mychal Denzel Smith uses Kanye West’s statement, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” as a touchstone for discussing black political rhetoric. If...
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12 Exercises Inspired by the Best Writing from 2015
The time of resolutions is upon us, and for writers, this usually means re-committing ourselves to projects that have stalled and gathered dust. We sit down at our computers, excited, and then realize...
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How to Create Structure with Images
Mario Alberto Zambrano’s novel Lotería uses a deck of cards to chart the story of a young girl’s family and its demise. When working on a novel, writers often reach a point where the thrill is gone....
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How to Describe a Character from the Perspective of Others
Tristan Ahtone rode Greyhound buses around America and wrote about it for Al Jazeera America‘s project, “The United States of Bus Travel.” Photo credit: Tomas Muscionico, Al Jazeera America The easiest...
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How to Add Physical Description to Dialogue
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eli Saslow wrote a feature for The Washington Post, “A Survivor’s Life,” on Cheyeanne Fitzgerald, one of the survivor’s of the mass shooting at Umpqua Community...
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How to Give Characters a Frame of Reference
Rosalie Lightning is cartoonist Tom Hart’s graphic memoir about the death of his infant daughter Rosalie and the struggle to understand how to live on in her absence. When people face tragedy, they...
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How to Challenge a Reader’s Sense of Reality
The hit documentary series, Making a Murderer, tells the story of Steven Avery, who was wrongly convicted of rape and then accused of murder. One of the smartest things ever said about writing fiction...
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How to Describe a Character’s Sense of the World
Garth Greenwell’s novel What Belongs to You tells the story of a young American man teaching in Bulgaria and his complicated relationship with Mitko, whom he meets in a public restroom. When I was an...
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How to Reveal Character Interiority through Action
Justin Torres’ novel We the Animals has been called “the kind of book that makes a career” in a review in Esquire. All characters think and feel, and, as writers, it’s important to convey the texture...
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How to Develop a Character amid Large-Scale Conflict
Selin Gökçesu wrote about her honeymoon in Turkey and the Syrian refugee crisis in her essay, “Under the Aegean Moon.” The essay was published at the Tin House blog “The Open Bar.” Stories about...
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How to Explain Away Implausibility
Mo Daviau’s novel Every Anxious Wave follows a bar owner who time travels to historical indie rock concerts. All superheroes have origin stories: Superman came from another planet, Spiderman got bitten...
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How to Reveal Tension Indirectly
Daniel Oppenheimer’s political biography, Exit Right, tells the story of six men who converted from the American left to American Conservatism—with an eye toward what the history and experience that...
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How to Skip Over Implausibility
Keith Lee Morris builds upon the long tradition of stories about haunted hotels with his spooky, unsettling novel Travelers Rest. In most writing workshops, someone will eventually say about a story,...
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How to Manipulate Chronology to Build Character
Chinelo Okparanta’s novel Under the Udala Trees tells the story of a young girl displaced by the Nigerian Civil War and the love affair that she begins. Chronology is something most writers and readers...
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How to Create a Window of Opportunity
Karen Ranney’s novel An American in Scotland follows an American woman with a secret who sails through a Union blockade during the Civil War in order to pursue business and romance in Scotland. When I...
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How to Become a Better Reader
A new anthology of essays on publishing contains Daniel José Older’s excellent essay, “Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power, Publishing.” A few weeks ago, in a university creative writing class that I...
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How to Introduce a Character with Misdirection
Kaitlyn Greenidge’s highly anticipated debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, tells the story of the Freemans, an African-American family that moves into a research institute to live with a...
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How to Build Character within Action Scenes
Manuel Gonzales’ novel The Regional Office Is Under Attack! is the much-anticipated follow-up to his terrific story collection, The Miniature Wife. The most boring prose is often supposed to be the...
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