Short Story
How to Write Dialogue in a Story
Writing dialogue in a story requires us to step into the minds of our characters. When our characters speak, they should speak as fully developed human beings, complete with their own linguistic quirks and unique pronunciations. Indeed, dialogue writing is essential to the art of storytelling. In real life, we learn about other people through…
Read MoreStatic Characters vs. Dynamic Characters: Definitions and Examples
You can categorize the people that populate your stories as static and dynamic characters. These categories correspond to character development: if they’re a changed person by the end of the story, they’re a dynamic character; if they haven’t changed at all, they’re a static character. There are many other ways to categorize characters—flat and round,…
Read MoreWhat is a Narrative Poem? Definition and Examples
Writers who want to set their stories in verse may be interested in the narrative poem. One of the oldest literary art forms in the history of written language, narrative poetry puts plot to poesy, combining the art of storytelling with the techniques of poetry writing. So, what is a narrative poem? To answer that…
Read MoreWhat is an Antagonist? Definition & Examples
Because most stories involve conflict, most stories also involve an antagonist. Your protagonist—the main character—will struggle to achieve something important to them, and the antagonist will further complicate this struggle. Knowing who is the antagonist of your story, as well as what motivates them, will greatly improve your fiction, nonfiction, and storytelling. Even if your…
Read MoreLiterary Fiction vs. Genre Fiction
The world of fiction writing can be split into two categories: literary fiction vs. genre fiction. Literary fiction (lit fic) generally describes work that’s character-driven and realistic, whereas genre fiction generally describes work that’s plot-driven and based on specific tropes. That said, these kinds of reductive definitions are unfair to both genres. Literary fiction can…
Read MoreLeaving
He’d be leaving town soon. He’d be leaving, lightly loaded, on the bus. Two items still to part with: A car with bad breaks, significant steering problems, and bald tires. That poem that ran much longer than Poe would ever allow. Epic. Five hundred pages of it. It was the last of his stuff. After…
Read MoreHow to Submit to Literary Journals
For the last few months, you’ve opened the document on your computer and spent time constructing sentences, reading, researching, and working on the right metaphor for your poem, short story, or nonfiction essay. This writing is done in isolation, with no one witnessing late nights, pages of revision, and of course, frustration. You’ve finally revised…
Read MoreDad is Inside Mom
Dad is inside Mom. They are so far up each other’s business that Mom engulfs Dad like a sausage casing. They operate in stereo now, in layers. The heft of them, standing on one pair of feet wearing Mom’s blue Keds, takes up space in the kitchen. Stretched and misshapen like an old man’s track…
Read MoreThe Gates Chip
The medical and media establishments dismissed it as superstition. At first Vivian sided with them, but then the Gates chip implanted during her second covid shot started kicking in. Before the injection, Vivian’s nurse warned she might experience fever, fatigue or rashes. But her body felt something else entirely. Head to toe, it fell into…
Read MoreDislodged
In my dad’s day there they called it personnel and it was in the main hospital, which our family referred to as the Zoo. Now they’d stuffed HR into the old Presbyterian parsonage so none of the hospital patients, a population already vulnerable and litigious, need risk any disgruntled employee-inflicted collateral damage. It was shabby,…
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