Put Your Fiction To The Plausibility Test
I’m afraid I’ll have to start my discussion of plausibility with a student story that remains vivid to me after some five years. The notion that a 21-year-old would even attempt to write a short story, let alone subject such work to the unpredictable blandishments of a workshop, strikes me as...
Fiction: Point of View
How many times have you heard this around the workshop table: “Why don’t you consider a new point of view?” (Actually, the term used more often is “POV” because it sounds a lot cooler, I suspect.) Everyone then agrees that a new POV might help matters, including the writer, who knew...
Fiction: Titles
It happens every semester I teach fiction, usually on the day we distribute stories for the first workshop. A student will raise her hand and offer the following caveat: “So I just wanted to, like, apologize for my story not having a title. I totally hate titles.”
Fiction: Attributive Clauses
Don't drag your dialogue down with busy attributives. Here's why "said" is the most effective way to end a quote.