Author Archives: sdgibson
Using other forms to house narratives
From our text, Josh Russell seems to use a museum catalogue to shape his story “Yellow Jack.” Rick Moody’s “Primary Sources” uses footnotes and a works cited page for a personal essay. J.G. Ballard’s “The Index” characterizes in unusual ways. How … Continue reading
The Hero’s Journey
This PDF is a dramatic oversimplification, but it outlines an approach to plotting that is essential in some genres. Variations on it can be especially interesting.
More commandments
From John Dufresne’s The Lie That Tells a Truth, here are some more writing commandments. And, from Sol Stein’s Stein on Writing, an additional set. Finally, Kurt Vonnegut’s eight guidelines for writing a story: Use the time of a total … Continue reading
Understanding your rough draft
Talk with at least one other person in the room about these questions: What large (global, chapter-level) changes do you need to make first? Second? What worries you about your opening? Your middle? Your conclusion? How can you increase the … Continue reading
Writing Commons
Consider exploring the Writing Commons website. It’s full of interesting ideas.
Openings
From Elizabeth George’s Write Away: “You can begin the story just before the beginning; you can begin it right at the beginning; or you can begin it after the beginning” (65). What are some other ways to start? How is it … Continue reading
Tips on writing from Kurt Vonnegut
I noticed this at Lifehacker.com, though it’s easily found other places as well. In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Vonnegut listed eight rules for writing a short story: Use the time of a total stranger in such a … Continue reading
Fish and sentences
Let’s look at a few pages from Stanley Fish’s How to Write a Sentence.
Outrunning the Critic
From The 3AM Epiphany by Brian Kiteley, this exercise is called “Outrunning the Critic.” I’ve summarized it here: Write one hundred short sentences about a character in a piece of your fiction. Don’t lift your fingers from your keyboard for all one hundred … Continue reading
Global revision
This is an example of global revision as the result of adding material.
Metaphor by Metaphor 