How to make your prose original and interesting — Creative writers can divide clichés in fiction into two broad categories: cliché story elements (such as character archetypes, plot twists, and so on) and cliché language (metaphors, turns of phrase, descriptions, and so on). This article will be addressing the latter of these two: cliché language — the common turns…

And why creatives need to get over our hesitations — Recently, when I changed library jobs a parting gift from my previous coworkers included a deck of motivational quote cards. While the kitsch of the motivational “hang in there” cat poster has made short, motivational tidbits be considered a bit corny, one of them has wriggled into my psyche. …

Tools to make the short story submission process just a little bit better — Submission grinder has quickly turned into one of the most beloved and useful tools for short story writers (and poets too!) to find literary markets to submit their creative works. …

Which force is better for the writer? — There are two “opposite ends of the spectrum” forces that affect the creative willpower and process of writers. There is the fickle fountain of ideas and good vibes that we call inspiration. And the ‘do it anyway — do it always’ drive and grind of productivity. But which is more…

The three things you should know before signing — Woah, you made it! You’re getting a short story published in a literary market. Celebration all around, but… They just sent you a contract to sign filled with a lot of serious-sounding words. ‘Contract’ being the scariest word of all. I mean, it’s not like you are going to hire…

Don’t underestimate the tools already at your fingertips — While the internet grind is about continually serving out a continuous stream of new content, I want to claim that old content can still be good actually. There are always new readers, followers, and subscribers. …

How to manipulate reality for the sake of story — Truth is stranger than fiction… because fiction has to make sense. A sentiment that has seen many iterations from many prominent authors, and probably dates back to a poem by Lord Byron, but all express the same thing: the dichotomy between real life and fiction stories. Some weird things can…

Not technically wrong, but not technically the best either — Creative writing manuscripts often have to be edited for length and word count. We need to whittle them down to fit submission guidelines and/or editorial directives. It can be difficult to make such cuts to a hard-worked draft, but fluff words are one of the easier targets for the chopping…

The second lives of unpublishable short fiction — Regular short story writers who are familiar with the rigmarole of submitting short stories to literary markets may be familiar with having an unpublishable short story. Unpublishable in that you’ve tried your darndest to get this story published through these venues and just can’t. This is with the understanding that…