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I’ve been a creative person for much of my life, but it’s only recently that I’ve begun to think about what exactly that means.
First of all, what is creativity?
If you ask a hundred people, you’ll very probably get a hundred different answers, …
Those who know Roman mythology will remember that January is named for the god Janus, patron of beginnings and endings. Here’s a story I wrote some time ago about the shenanigans he might get up to today.
Janus
It’s essential to have the right o…
Between the Lines: Master the Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing by Jessica Page MorrellMy rating: 3 of 5 starsThis book has a lot of insight to offer for editing fiction and filling in the blanks that we sometimes take for granted. It’s great in parti…
I’ve come across some very annoying sports fans. We all recognize the type: opinionated, unwilling to take gainsaying, trash-talking, loud, obnoxious. I’ve heard it said that the modern sports fandom is a socially sanctioned way to express the fanaticism and warrior-like need to denigrate an opponent that in past centuries would have been reserved to […]
(Beth Turnage) I’ve written a number of posts on Quora on writing, and thought I’d curate some here. You can call it laziness, but really it’s a lack of time, since ghostwriting is keeping me very busy. Really. 😉 When writing, how do you grab your reader’s attention as quickly as possible? How do I… Continue reading The Craft of #Writing: Grabbing the Reader
My first name is incredibly common and yet most people I meet have never heard it or know how to pronounce it. I guess my parents wanted me to experience the double benefits of having a recognizable name and also deal with the constant battle of teaching others how to say it correctly. Jens is […]
One of the first things I tell new students that come into my classroom each year is that I don’t care about grades. For years, I’ve worked to de-emphasize grades and so hopefully to promote learning. It works for some students, while others never quite get beyond that need for validation from a number/letter that […]
So … It’s been a while since the last entry. For various reasons, I haven’t been back to update. Some soul-searching, some real-life complications, and lots of writing. Yeah, I know I had a little whinge last time. I guess I got it out of my system. So, let’s recap: – I’m working on final … Continue reading Keep plugging along
More news coming soon!But for now, three new acceptances to report here. First, I sold a poem, “Body double for the oldest organism,” to Star*Line, the official magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. It will be my third poem in…
I think we all come to them, in life. All the time. Points where seemingly minor decisions can have cascading effects for months or years. I think I’m hitting one of those in my writing life now. So now I sit here at three in the morning, unable to sleep because of thinking about this. … Continue reading At a Bit of a Crossroads