Craft Library

THE BIG PICTURE

• WHY WRITE?  can art save lives?

• MIND MAPPING Tinker Toys for writers

• LITERARY MOOD BOARD self-guided tour to internal coherence

• ASSESS taking stock of what you've got

• THREE WHYS & A WHAT questions to ground you at the outset, or midway, depending on your methods

• MAP A NOVEL  controlling the lay of the land in a full length text

• ANNOTATED TABLE OF CONTENTS a scaffold to help build or analyze your text

• WHAT’S IMPORTANT?  choosing story elements

• (NOT) FORGETTING THE MOST IMPORTANT THING an Oblique Strategy

MOTIVATION

• UNBLOCK an arsenal of strategies

• DAILY PRACTICE show up every day

• WRITE TO THE TENSION jump to the juicy part

• JUMP START read to write

• OBLIQUE STRATEGIES Brian Eno's tiny engines of  creativity

• FINIS write the end to survive the middle

• A WALK, ALONE it primes the mind

• FINISHING SCHOOL why is it so hard to finish a book?

STRUCTURE & PATTERN

• A FRACTAL OPENING telling it all up front, but not really

• MIRROR, MIRROR using the shapes of natural objects, artworks and artifacts

• STRUCTURES sonnets, sonatas and other structures 

• LINK STITCH bookbinding for writers 

• PATTERN SEARCH find and heighten what's already there 

• WAYPOINTS getting there from here 

• PARALLELISM more of the same is better

• REPETITION IS A FORM OF CHANGE an Oblique Strateguy

• REFRAINS variations accrue meaning

CONTEXTS

• SOUND TRACK what's playing?

• COMMONPLACE BOOK / SAMPLE to quote — perchance to steal

• HAPPY PLACE channeling your past, Stanislavski style

• STEAL THIS SENTENCE allusion, homage & inspiration 

• PASTICHE emulate your idols

• EKPHRASIS art & other worlds

• AUTOBIOGRAPHICA LITERARIA a life rendered in 4 sentences; a seed to engender work on any scale

• RESEARCH how much and how to

REVISION

• SENTENCE CLINIC getting out the magnifying glass

• NAIL YOUR OPENING to start powerfully, revisit your opening

• 39, OR 47, ENDINGS  it worked for Hemingway

• EDITING DIALOGUE artifice, compression and reader agency

• CURIOSITY NOT VIRTUOSITY and then what? 

• INSPIRATION, THANKSGIVING, CHANGE taking cues from life — and messing with them 

• PROCESSING FEEDBACK how to handle the help you’re given

• INTERNAL CLICHE FINDER get out of your verbal rut

• FAST READ THROUGH see what you have without getting mired in editing

• NEW DRAFT FROM SCRATCH radical revising

TIME

• TEMPO CHANGES finding energy in variation

• THE SPEED OF TIME jump cuts

• TIME LAPSE 1: ruins

• TIME LAPSE 2: persistence & regeneration

• PACING AND TIME on narrative time & duration

• FLASHBACK macro & micro

• KEEPING TIME without days or dates

• (NOT) FORGETTING THE MOST IMPORTANT THING an Oblique Strategy

SETTING

• GIRL IN LANDSCAPE who's seeing the worlds you describe?

• ROAD TRIP charting the banalities of travel

• QUEST a search that begets a setting

• CLUTTERED / CLEAN where does your character fall on the Hoarder-Kondo scale?

• LESS OR MORE? world building that builds readers' agency 

• THE WALK-THROUGH setting's not about surfaces, or even mood, it's about story 

• ALTERNATE REALITIES  deliria, intoxications, ghosts, dreams & the uncanny

• HOME PLACE here and there, then and now

PEERS & GROUPS

• RADICAL EDITORIAL EMPATHY  how to give feedback 

• HOW TO BE in a writing workshop

CHARACTER WORK

• USE UNQUALIFIED PEOPLE an Oblique Strategy

• MOOD FILTER using multiple filters to create a three-dimensional character

• SWITCHEROO  what's the fallout of from error?

• LYING a character flaw that can drive entire narratives

• EXPLORING CHARACTER  through variation in time and scale 

• MISBELIEF & SELF DECEPTION fulcrums for change 

• SELF-SOOTHING a trauma, a treatment — a two-fold revelation of character

• MONEY regardless of how much people have, how they handle money reveals their character

• (NOT) TALKING ABOUT TRAUMA what haunts your character, and what do they talk about when they're avoiding talking about it?

• NOW WHAT DO YOU WANT? what drives your characters?

• INTERIORITY / EXTERIORITY both is better

• SOMATICIZE THE PAST how body language can provide narrative content

• BODY LANGUAGE  don't describe your characters, move them

• DRINK ME we're 60% water, after all

• BLACK HOLE tapping your darkest secrets for narrative energy

• THE MASH-UP 1+1=1?

• PURITY AND DANGER what belongs where?

• SUBTLETY how to follow a John Gardner prompt without mentioning a barn

• A SLIP OF THE PEN inadvertent can be important

• DON'T EAT THE HEROINE! avoiding cliched metaphors in character description

• PITS AND PEEVES what your character can’t stand

• LESSER SECRETS OF THE PROTAGONIST idiosyncrasy begets authenticity

• ANTAGONIST ACADEMY make your villain better

• THREE QUESTIONS from Anna Deavere Smith

• CRINGEWORTHY embarrass yourself

• TERTIARY TERRITORY minor characters can have major impact

• DON’T LOOK mentioning unmentionables

• SKIN DEEP zero in on the body's largest organ

• TEETH pearly white, gold or wooden

VOICES

• I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU a catechism

• THE EAVESDROPPER listening in can change a lot

• EDITING DIALOGUE artifice, compression and reader agency 

• VARIATION IN TONE, POETRY IN PROSE the shape of sentences matters

• LEVELS OF DICTION how do your people talk?

• POINT OF VIEW AND PARALLAX  narrators and personae 

• VOICE(S) & how to make them distinct

• SHOUTS AND WHISPERS modulating volume in dialogue

DEVICES , TECHNIQUES & MORE

• PERSONIFICATION The hours walked and I walked with them

• ANIMALS! diversify your narrative ecosystem

• DEBUNK A DEEPLY HELD BELIEF exploring principles and hypocrisies

• DIFFERENTIALS  "I like your pink bike."

• AVOIDING OVERUSE INJURIES managing motifs

• CROWD SCENE find the dynamism in the many, then zoom in

• ADJACENCY the power of peripheral stories

• NARRATIVE WEATHER fine or foul, it sets the tone

• STORIES WITHIN STORIES is a play the thing? an anecdote?

• A TIME TO WITHHOLD creating curiosity

• GLANCING AT EROS come on in, the water's fine

• CHIAROSCURO harnessing the energy of tonal contrast

• LIST inventory what matters

•  HYBRID FORMS  nonfictional asides and other literary conglomerations 

• GALLOWS HUMOR the light after the dark

• BREAD ALONE what's for dinner?

• A WRINKLE IN MOBY-DICK introduce a motif

• I HEARD A FLY BUZZ... going buggy 

• THEMES & MOTIFS getting control of symbolism

• A COMEDY OF NOSES serious silliness

• DOUBLES give rise to dichotomies

• REDACT THAT! omissions and elisions: tools to create suspense and engagement

• THE ART OF INTEGRATING PROCESS ESSAYS  when how-to tells a story

• DEAR MADAM — literary letters

• WITHHOLDING prevarications and lies

PROMPT FESTIVALS

• OBLIQUE STRATEGIES 2021-2024

• 30 PROMPTS OF NOVEMBER 2021

• PROMPTS FOR SUMMER 2022

• PROMPTS FOR SUMMER 2023

• PROMPTOBER 2024

• PROMPTS FOR DECEMBER 2024