Posts about “Fiction”

Sally Rooney’s novels Conversations with Friends and Normal People have been two of the most talked-about books of the past five years. Profiles of Rooney tend to feature her age (she’s not yet thirty) and to deploy descriptions like “phenomenon”…

“If I can get that first paragraph right,” Stephen King once told The Atlantic, “I’ll know I can do the book.” Starting a story—or novel—can feel pretty intimidating. And to be sure, a compelling start can do more than encourage…

In a workshop, the writer Dorothy Allison had us go around the room and all fake an orgasm.  She critiqued the authenticity and then had us write a sex scene where sound was present. This idea came up when she…

Writing for the stage offered me an opportunity to explore the mechanics of dialogue.  In a play, the spoken word carries a weight that in other genres it shares with written descriptions, insights into situations, references… On stage the word…

Do you write fiction?  Maybe you’ve got a shoebox full of short stories, or the drafts of various novels. Maybe you haven’t yet found the right form in which to realize the full potential of your story. Maybe you’re wondering…

Creativity is a slippery thing.  There’s nothing so thrilling as being in the flow of the creative zone…until the day your inspiration is gone. Then it’s like you’ve been dumped on the side of the highway. You’re lost, tired, stuck,…