Many of us take for granted the fact that we can read and understand a newspaper article. Did you know that, according to a 2011 study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, 29% of adults in the United States don’t read well enough to understand a newspaper story written at an eighth grade level?
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Creative writing is often considered an elitist pursuit, mostly because the people who practice creative writing try to keep it that way. Hiding behind the excuse that “no one cares about creative writing except the people who practice it”, the creative writing clique keeps to itself.
3 CommentsDiscussing serious fiction – with its complicated characters, heavy themes, and often intricate storylines – is sure to inspire questions like: Is this character believable? Is the character fully developed? Are the relationships between the characters fully realized?
3 CommentsIf you see an interesting word, and you learn how to use it, you can add it to your Bank of Vocabulary account, without any fees or interest rates! You can’t hoard endless amounts of your favorite snack or your favorite brand of clothing, but you can have as many of your favorite words as you want.
5 CommentsIn order to be a great writer, you do have to write a “difficult” work. But what’s “difficult” is the subject matter, the relationships between the characters, and the emotional weight of the story. “Difficult” should describe the reader trying to get the work out of his or her head.
5 CommentsI never begin a blog post without first giving it a title, but I usually change it before I click the “Publish” button. When I was in school, I’d normally use an obscenity as a placeholder on essays until I could come up with something better. It’s amazing that I never once forgot to change the title.
3 CommentsWhen I first started taking writing classes, I was shocked that my professors allowed us to express our appreciation for or hatred of a text. In my high school English Literature classes, I could never say that I didn’t like Moby Dick, even though I was thinking it. Then, liking or not liking a text was besides the point.
2 CommentsI love to read new and emerging fiction, and I get particularly excited when I read a great story by a peer. Below are the 15 writers under 40 who make me really giddy. I probably could have chosen 20 with some more thought, but 15 came to mind very easily. I included both fiction writers and poets.
7 CommentsOne reason people have so much trouble paying attention to digitized content is because it’s updated so frequently. Writers and content are so numerous that readers don’t become married to any one writer or publication; they don’t develop trust and the confidence that what they will read will change them or help them learn something new.
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