Truing the Narrative: Revising for Symmetry to Make Your Manuscript Sing
When a memoirist studies her manuscript for patterns in theme and style, the symmetries she cultivates bring powerful shape to her book.
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Tags: creative process
Three-Day Writing Detox: Tips for Starting the New Year With Confidence
A poet recommends a three-day program to examine your writing, where you write, what you write with, and what your goals are as a way to refresh your spirit and energize your writing practice.
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Dare to Defamiliarize: In Praise of Fluidity
The acclaimed fiction writer, essayist, comic book writer, and screenwriter cautions against growing too rigid in your practice and suggests kicking down some doors and using writing as a multi-tool.
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A Computer-Free Day: How One Small Mistake Changed My Perspective on Productivity
A writer of fiction and nonfiction forgets her laptop on a mini writing retreat and discovers new and productive paths through creativity without the constant pull of technology.
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Inspiration From Across the Literary Landscape
Five acclaimed writers traverse the literary landscape, gleaning lessons from diverse genres of writing and bringing them back to bear on any work.
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The Long and Rolling Line
The author of Ocean of Clouds (Knopf, 2025) considers the lineage of his own loping lines and encourages poets to try them.
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Plotting Form Ahead of Time
The author of Ocean of Clouds (Knopf, 2025) considers the benefits of planning elements of a poem before its composition.
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Ten Questions for Devon Walker-Figueroa
“It can take days, months, years for me to know when notes pass into the arena of poem or story.” —Devon Walker Figueroa, author of Lazarus Species
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Long Live the Longer Short Story: Depth Without a Novel’s Commitment
The acclaimed fiction writer unpacks the art of the longer short story—a form with space for ambitious plot and rich characterization, with the pressure and punch of concision.
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Writing Ambivalence
The author of no swaddle (University of Iowa Press, 2025) reflects on approaching uncertainty on the page.
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