And One Last Word #3: When Stick Figures Learn to Feel

Don Hertzfeldt, father of twenty-first century absurdist humor, tells one of the most moving, beautiful tales of the decade with only a handful of stick figures and a brutally simple story.

Story Cohesion and No Good Reason

Episodic stories are all fine and good, but if your story lacks cohesive structure, you might as well just be an anecdote writer. And as any frequent partygoer knows, anecdotes can be quick to lose their charm.

Mastering Diction and Writing Fiction

Now that we've explored connotation, it's time to sharpen our wordsmithing skills and reevaluate the importance of diction in fiction (and poetry too, apparently).

Deadlines and Making Things Shine

It's deadline season for short story contests all across the nation! Time to plug in the coffeemaker, crack open a fresh bottle of Xanax, and get down to business.

And One Last Word #2: The Best Piece of Writing in Television Animation History

A largely dismissed and underrated show not only sprung some enormous surprises in its third season, it also produced the single best written episode of animated television ever.

Book Review: Blue Eel by Lorne Dixon

Blue Eel is a psychedelic, sometimes foggy, trip through desert cults and the depths of the human psyche. 

And One Last Word: #1: Why Stephen King's "The Gingerbread Girl" is a Modern Marvel

One of King's lesser-known short stories is a surprisingly devastating piece of realistic fiction on par with his early novellas.