January 11, 2019
On the Three-Act Structure
One of the central lessons I learned back when I was still attempting to become a screenwriter as well as a fiction writer (something I’ve discussed on this blog a […]
January 3, 2019
Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry – January
“Education is not the filling of a pail,” reads the sign above my colleague’s desk, “but the lighting of a fire.” These lines—often attributed to the poet W. B. Yeats—happen […]
May 23, 2018
Your Online Dating Profile Written by Famous Writers
The Misunderstood Detective With a Poet’s Soul: About You: You love to dwell in uncertainties. You relish the chance to analyze anything, whether it be a text, film, or person. […]
August 14, 2017
My Conservative Past
Maybe I was reading too much T. S. Eliot. Maybe it was the gnawing sense of living in a world out of control—but when has the world ever been in […]
July 26, 2016
Going Corporate: Writing After the Job Offer
Earlier this week, I visited my friend Liz Breazeale in Kansas City, where she recently moved after accepting a corporate technical writer position. In her new apartment, above her writing […]
July 22, 2012
The neo-canonicity of F. R. Leavis
My first ingestion of F. R. Leavis’s 1953 essay “The ‘Great Books’ and a Liberal Education” resulted in the British critic’s own volume being thrown across the room. What was […]