In many of my MFA classes, including the one I’m currently taking, I get a lot of feedback on my creative work. It’s part of why I wanted to pursue an MFA, but sometimes figuring out how to process it is challenging. After taking lots of classes, and working with critique partners over the years,…
I’ve been working on editing a novel today – it was that great feeling where you get sucked into a project and don’t want to stop. It felt great. Then I decided, “Maybe I’ll spend a few minutes working on getting rid of my filler words.” Filler words are those words that 90% of the…
I love the idea of National Novel Writing Month. Love the idea of clear goals and a deep commitment to finishing a project and working every day. The organization it’s attached to is so encouraging and has awesome resources – the whole concept of it makes me feel a sort of sunbeams and chocolate and…
Editing some of my writing today and here are two revelations about myself – Apparently I’m perfectly happy to use the Oxford comma in my fiction – but I’m always reluctant to use semi-colons. They just feel pretentious to me – I’m not even sure why. I always want to use a comma before I…
Jenel Alan 