Let's talk about craft

because we can always improve our writing

Some of you may know that I’m Features Editor for Reckon Review, a journal known for a bent toward “grit lit” or darker, deeper prose, founded and lead by award winning novelist Meagan Lucas. I edit a panel of 11 columnists who make up our “Wind and Root” home within Reckon. They are accomplished and near-perfect writers and, certainly, professional in our collaborations together. I am blessed to work with them! The focus of their columns’ is craft informed by each writers’ particular theme, hobby, or interest, which includes:

• Parenting

• Restoration

• Baking

• Social sciences

• Outsider perspectives

• Folklore

• Sound

• Adversity

• Body image / exercise

• Gardening

• Creativity

These writers, Barlow Adams, Amy Barnes, Sandra Barnidge, Melissa Llanes Brownlee, Erin Calabria, Edward Karshner, Brandy McCann, Mandira Pattnaik, Valerie Peralta, Stuart Phillips, and Michaella Thornton, are the soul of “Wind and Root”. I have learned so much from their essays and I highly recommend keeping an eye on their columns, We publish a new column every week, normally on Wednesdays (visit us!), so I am immersed in non-fiction writing on a regular basis. We also have guest columnists for the month of April. Past guests have included novelists Gabino Iglesias, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Tiffany Quay Tyson, Shome Dasgupta, as well as other accomplished writers.

Additionally, I helm my own litmag, SugarSugarSalt, with Jamy Bond and Naz Knudsen, which publishes only Creative Nonfiction. Previously, I was CNF Editor for Barren Magazine and The Citron Review for several years each. I’ve read a lot of non-fiction of all sorts (and fiction and poetry) and worked with a diverse variety of writers. It’s what I love to do, even more than writing myself, sometimes.

Reading articles and books about the craft of writing is a good way to hone your own writing and get good, concrete information about structure, characters, dialog, creativity, and other components of writing a successful piece.

Today I’m sharing a few craft pieces, with a small blurb, I’ve read and think are right on the mark with their advice.

“Revise in Five” by Eric Scott Tryon, Editor of Flash Frog litmag, from his own website:

So many times, I come across stories that begin with setting up the scene, or setting up our main character, or providing backstory to give the conflict some context. And while much of this can work in novels or short stories, it rarely works well in flash.

“The Poetics of Brevity” by Grant Faulkner, author of The Art of Brevity and co-founder of 100 Word Story, in The Adroit Journal:

Images take on a more prominent place in short-shorts than they do in longer works because they serve to resonate and enlarge a work, to carry the work and let it speak beyond the page. Sometimes the image becomes almost like a main character itself, as in a poem. An image that carries a work with its symbolic weight is a fusion of inner and outer environments, a marriage of reality and fantasy.

“Rejection is (Still) Not Feedback” by Allison K Williams, Social Media Editor for Brevity, in Brevity:

But what’s even truer is that very often, an essay rejection isn’t based on your actual quality of writing. Reading hundreds of essays sent in for workshops, working with clients, I’ve noticed key elements that are self-sabotaging many essays. None of them is bad writing. Every one of them can be fixed.

“The Blank of Writing Titles” by Amy Barnes in Trampset (who is also a columnist for Reckon Review):

Another way I fill in title blanks is by defining big words with the story that follows. I keep a running list of words that are long, medical, intriguing, or ones I have to look up. This may be the most basic of Mad Libs, just one blank to fill in. I’ve used words like hyperlexia and dermatographia as titles — each story that followed was a wink to the word.

Why You Might Not Have Placed That Brilliant Story (aka Read the Guidelines);

By Karen Jones, editor at New Flash Fiction Review and The National Flash Fiction Day anthology, in New Flash Fiction Review:

Guidelines are not a dare, not a challenge. They are there to help you, the writer, find the correct market. They are there so that we, the editors/readers don’t have to wade through stories that, however well written, are not what we’re interested in.

I couldn’t agree more! An Editor can tell immediately when guidelines have not been read. It’s a big no-no to ignore guidelines.

So let’s all keep our eyes on the prize: continuing education in the craft of writing. Let’s keep learning from seasoned writers and each other. Thanks for allowing me to brag a little on my “Wind and Root” team and share good info with you!