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by Pam Lafollette   As I work on revision #437 of my novel-in-progress, I reflect on what it took to get this manuscript to where it is today. My first novel was 485,000 words: about the size of War and Peace and riddled with the inherent mistakes of a novice—telling-not-showing, meandering prose, lack of conflict, lack of pacing, overuse of ...

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by Kimberly Crum Exploring point-of-view in your writing     “I have wanted you to see out of my eyes so many times.” ~Elizabeth Berg~ Perhaps, you write creative nonfiction — personal essay, memoir, literary journalism. You use fictional techniques to create true stories. But the first-person pronoun, at times, feels a bit narcissistic. And, you tire of the relentless ...

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by Jessica Hildebrand   May all beings attain happiness. Death in the time of pandemic. Of course. It is happening hourly in hospitals all over the world as humanity faces the Covid-19 virus, which seems to take people indiscriminate of gender, race, age or ethnicity. Doctors, nurses and caregivers work exhaustively and selflessly around the clock to save as many ...

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  by Kimberly Crum   True stories by ordinary people are commonly referred to as the “nobody memoir.” We lack the plot line of celebrity. No rags turned to riches. No lonely child turned superstar. We are still working on the arcs of our plots. Neither famous nor infamous, the typical nobody memoirist describes the most intense incidents of a ...

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