February 15, 2019
I have been thinking for a while about how our attempts to define craft terms influence our students’ (and our own) aesthetics, and I have wanted to try other definitions. The first post is here.
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Vulnerability:
the real author’s stakes in the implied author
I usually take the first week of Intro to Fiction workshops to discuss vulnerability, which is key both to good writing and to good workshopping. ...
February 09, 2019
I have been thinking for a while about how our attempts to define craft terms influence our students’ (and our own) aesthetics, and I have wanted to try other definitions. The first post is here.
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Believability:
the differences and similarities between various characters’ expectations
One of the most distracting conversations in workshop occurs in the name of “believability.” “It’s not believable,” ...
February 01, 2019
I have been thinking for a while about how our attempts to define craft terms influence our students’ (and our own) aesthetics, and I have wanted to try other definitions. The first post is here.
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Relatability:
is it clear how the implied author is presenting the characters
Relatability, as it is usually spoken of, is useless to craft. When students say a character is “relatable,” they mean that they are ...
January 25, 2019
I have been thinking for a while about how our attempts to define craft terms influence our students’ (and our own) aesthetics, and I have wanted to try other definitions. The first post is here.
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Characterization:
what makes the character different from everyone else
One of my favorite exercises for characterization is taken from Danzy Senna: start a series of sentences about the same character with ...
