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Goodbye, Tarantula
Tarantula skittered from the snowy window into the dust-ridden bedroom. She paced left and right. She could sense the termites eating away at the bedframe, and the carpet beetles shimmying out the closet. But overlapping those signals was the mouse family’s squeaks: the voice of a mother comforting her children from the hailstorm. Tarantula Read more
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How to Say Something Unique – The Parts of Speech
One of my favorite parts of writing is creating awesome sentences. To really get the reader unexpecting on each line—to the point where they’re hooked cuz they just HAVE to read the next line—you have to break some conventions. Here’s a convention: the parts of speech. Nouns are nouns, verbs are verbs, etc. But it Read more
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Good Nouns Go a Long Way
Adjectives may be strong, but nouns are powerful. With a good noun, you can go an entire story with an adjective. Adjectives are strong, but sometimes they can be weak. Take the phrases below for example: “a funny guy” “a guy who is funny“ Both examples are helpful describg the noun (“guy”) but they are Read more
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My Dream Creative Writing Club
When I was in Temple University, I was part of a campus lit mag called Hyphen. It published annually. Meetings were weekly, and anyone who attended was considered an editor, able to cast a vote for the acceptance or rejection of a piece. Pieces included art, poems, and short stories, and while editors could read Read more
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So… Where Do Sentences Come From?
I’ve noticed something. When I’m writing, there are days when I feel invigorated—“Yes! Did you read that sentence?! I’ve got the magic touch!”—and there are days when I feel muddled—“Bah! I’m slogging through quicksand. The words just don’t sound right…”—but in either case, when I become self-aware of what I’m typing, or of the words Read more
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The Perfect Gift
“Dude: me and Karey, rappeling down a cliff, blasting Earth Wind & Fire out these speakers.” “… and that’s your idea of a relaxing Valentine’s day?” It was Shawn I was talking to, so I couldn’t be miffed at the reaction. A windy spring day, leaves loosed from trees brushed across his cheek or afro; Read more
The Fiction Writer 