Preparing for the Worst: The Negatively Framed Outline
Pessimism can be a writer’s best friend: Fiction writer Benjamin Percy explores how the worst-case scenario can bring out the best in a story.
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Pessimism can be a writer’s best friend: Fiction writer Benjamin Percy explores how the worst-case scenario can bring out the best in a story.
Follow in the dactylic footsteps of Homer, leave everyone behind for a solo journey, or report the breaking news of your own life—three prompts to help start your writing off on a great adventure.
Writing prompts and exercises in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction employing kindness, strange connections, and the timeless wisdom of Special Agent Dale Cooper.
The assistant poetry editor of Able Muse offers his thoughts on coming to terms with the inevitability—and impersonality—of rejection in the world of literary magazines.
Even in translation, Norwegian author Per Petterson’s prose is intensely rhythmic and lyrical, evoking something akin to the oral tradition of Appalachian storytelling.
Iowa isn’t just the Writers’ Workshop. A native Iowan talks about how she learned to capture the true nature of her home state, and the stoic people who live there, in her writing.
On her way to the Vermont Studio Center and in a moment of panic, a writer tells a lie that leads her to realize an important truth about herself—and exactly what it takes to finish her novel.
UK artist Jennifer Collier uses repurposed books and papers to sculpt an array of art objects inspired by the very materials used to create them—from stilettos made from the pages of Little Women to gloves fashioned from the illustrated text of Alice in Wonderland—each finished project a reflection of the written words from which it’s made.