https://brevity.wordpress.com/feed/
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How Grief Impacts CreativityBy Sweta Srivastava Vikram This past year brought my family many reasons to grieve. In May of 2023, we received a call...
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The Art of Traumedy Writing: Or, How to Make Your Mother Cry at Your Life, and Laugh at Your DeathBy Brooke Champagne Writer Nora Ephron said of the difference between tragedy and comedy: “When you slip on a banana peel, people...
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The Magic Question: Getting Real Feedback You Can Actually UseShow your pretty necklace. Just look at those beautifully dropped shoulders! By Allison K Williams A writer asked,...
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Mao’s Head: The Quest for the Perfect TitleBy Michael Engelhard “What’s in a title?” riffs David Petersen in Writing Naturally , his down-to-earth guide for aspiring nature...
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Get On Board: Keeping Readers on the Dramatic TrainBy Allison K Williams There is a glorious moment in almost every manuscript where the editor realizes, “Aha! THIS is where the...
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Crabby Hermits and Simone Biles: Using Satire and Experimental FormsBy Carlos Greaves Simone Biles had just withdrawn from the women’s gymnastics team event at the Tokyo Olympics, and reading Piers...
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For the Edification of My Soul—And the Enhancement of My Writing CraftBy Laura Johnsrude I go to art galleries for the edification of my soul. I go to art galleries to gasp and moan and wonder and...
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Does It Have to Be Memoir?By Beth Kephart In the end, we make it. We craft the poem, we THE END the novel, we choose the cover art that will announce our...
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What Columbo Taught Me About Writing EssaysBy Andrea A. Firth I’ve been watching reruns of Columbo lately. Why? At a young age, I was fascinated by the quirky detective...
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Your Media IS Your MarketBy Allison K Williams How is the media you regularly consume supporting your book? Writing a book is tough enough, but when...
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Hit Play: Tapping the Power of SongBy Gretchen Cion “Just listen,” my friend said, handing me her headphones. At thirteen years old, I sat on the steps of...
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Tending the LotusBy Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew Vietnamese Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh told this story in his book The Heart of the...
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How Do You Know When Your Work Is Done?By Suzanne Roberts One of the questions I often get about writing is this: How do I know when a piece is finished? The first answer...
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In Search of Today’s Literary Zeitgeist … and an AgentBy Kathy Watson After reading the wish lists of 353 literary agents, I’m considering writing a novel about an emotionally damaged...
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Avoiding the “Road to Hell” with Powerful Adjectives and AdverbsBy Sarah Chauncey The road to hell is paved with adverbs. — Stephen King, On Writing The road to purgatory is paved with...
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Brevity Craft Merges with the Brevity BlogBrevity has grown in size and scope over the past two decades and our flagship magazine of concise nonfiction exists now side-by-side...
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In Short: A New Journal of Flash NonfictionA Q&A with Steph Liberatore By Andrea A. Firth At the end of January, Steph Liberatore, a writer and a professor in the...
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What’s In A Name Anyway?By Regina Landor Last fall I joined the choir of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockville near my home in Maryland. I...
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The Hard Sell: Why Memoirs Get Fewer Book DealsBy Allison K Williams & Jane Friedman A writer asked me, “Allison, why are memoirs so much harder to get published than...
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“Live Writing” & Nurturing the Freedom to Make Abstract ConnectionsBy Alexandra O’Sullivan When people ask me what I do and I tell them I’m a teacher, their faces often brighten for follow up...
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Not Telling It AllBy Bev Stevens I was in my sixties before I turned my hand to creative nonfiction. I was, and still am, writing web copy and how-to...
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Writing in the WaterBy Samantha Ladwig A blank page never scared me until I bought a bookstore months before the pandemic—an endeavor that pushed me...
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Hitherto, the Amazingly Flexible EssayBy Dinty W. Moore Memoir, despite its occasional detractors, remains a popular, powerful genre of nonfiction, and thanks to the...
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What Are You Showing? Two Vital Components of Powerful ScenesBy Heather Sellers Most of us are familiar with the dictum, “show, don’t tell.” Allow your reader to participate in making meaning...
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Creative Nonfiction or Fiction: On Choosing the Best Genre for Our MaterialBy Nancy McCabe My early training was mostly in fiction writing, but eventually, after years of writing autobiographical fiction...
