by Nathan James | Jul 18, 2017 | Challenge, Fiction|Poetry, Open, YeahWrite
Taking It Easy (On Yourself) We just wrapped up a busy weekend of the YeahWrite Nonfiction Super Challenge and other writing contests. The adrenaline resulting from having to write an essay or a short story on a tight deadline is addictive, but it can also jangle...
by Nathan James | Jul 4, 2017 | Challenge, Fiction|Poetry, Open, YeahWrite
Building up I’ve been wallowing in a mud hole all weekend. It’s the same mud hole I visit whenever a writing competition ends. These contests always make me grow; they show me how far I’ve come in writing fiction. They also gently remind me how far...
by Nathan James | Jun 20, 2017 | Challenge, Fiction|Poetry, Open, YeahWrite
The dreaded phrase I’ve been reading a lot of writing advice lately and I’ve noticed that most columnists assume that their readers know what “show, don’t tell” means, how to fix it, and when not to fix it. We hear that phrase over and...
by Nathan James | Jun 6, 2017 | Challenge, Fiction|Poetry, Open, YeahWrite
Word Mice I think of them as word mice hiding in little pockets of my stories. These mice are filler words such as seem, turn, and reach with tails and little claws that burrow into the insulation of a story I’m building. They’re tricky. Sometimes writers...
by Nathan James | May 23, 2017 | Challenge, Fiction|Poetry, Open, YeahWrite
Counting eggs Have you ever reread one of your stories and realized you forgot to include a key detail? I so do this all the time. My brain is so focused on the details of a story I forget to mention the setting or describe a character. Just this weekend I almost...
by Nathan James | May 9, 2017 | Challenge, Fiction|Poetry, Open, YeahWrite
I’ve Heard It All Before I’m gonna ask all of you to indulge me a moment while I fess up to a writing pet peeve. Out of all the thousands of clichés in all of writing history there is one that almost always makes me grit my teeth: Tears. (You...
