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Herbs, herbs, herbs, I’m so sick of herbs….
Let’s talk about herbs. No, let’s talk about some herbs. Not in the basil-mint-dill sense, no. When the woodsman cooks a rabbit, he uses ‘some savory herb’. When your character has a cough, the healer...
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I Meant to Do That!
So I have two Rules of Writing (so far). Be specific, be intentional. Time to unpack that second one. I’ve broken it into several categories. Be intentional: Everyone plays favorites. Everyone has...
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I didn’t have time to write you a short one.
There is a third Rule of Writing, but it’s more a Rule of Editing: be short. This is more than brevity being the soul of wit. Short is better than long most of the time. Paper magazines can’t publish...
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What Do I Do Now?
You wrote the story. You edited the story. You scrapped it. You rewrote it. You edited the story again. You asked friends for input, then ignored them. You continued editing. You cut, you cut, you cut....
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The Single Most Common Problem with Application Stories
…is manuscript format. Every year. Why manuscript format? Because it makes things easier. You can write in whatever format you want. Write in pencil at the end of your Algebra notebook, scribble in pen...
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Then stop.
One of the tough parts about writing short stories, especially if you’re used to reading novels or series instead, is that short stories stop. How does one accomplish this feat? You need an ending....
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What Do I Do Now?
So you didn’t get into Alpha this year. What do you do now? First off: recover. It can be a really tense wait and all the ignoring it in the world doesn’t help if back-of-brain decides to fixate on it....
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A Week of Prompts
The Alpha application deadline is fast approaching, and that means at least a few people are panicking. Is the story good enough? I should write another– but I don’t have any ideas! Everything is...
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