In Case You Didn’t Get Enough: The Clerihew Zone
A couple of weeks ago, a fellow named Bill Naquin wrote in to tell me about a Facebook page with which he is connected: The Clerihew Zone. A recently concluded […]
Line Edits: Princess Puffs
In response to a post about homesickness, Jennifer Monroe wrote an excellent piece about a woman whose homesickness hits her in her new grocery store, where she can’t find her […]
Line Edits: Grapefruit Spoons
In this episode of Line Edits, we look at the first paragraph of Kimberly Wetzel’s piece about grapefruit spoons. We will look at some ways that experience gets translated into […]
Line Edits: Two Cooks
In this episode of Line Edits, we look at Elizabeth Giger’s piece about two very different cooks: her mother and her grandmother. Elizabeth submitted this essay as a response to […]
Line Edits: Mr. Williams
Below is a PDF with detailed comments on Dylan Bailey’s story about Mr. Williams, a sword-wielding English teacher. This piece of fiction was submitted in response to a writing prompt calling for […]
Line Edits: Teacher
Below is JR’s 1100-word commentary on Laura Sherman’s 700-word story, “Teacher.” In short fiction (even more so in “flash fiction”), you’re looking for just a scene or two that is a […]
Episode 6: The Meeting
In this episode, we look at a short description of a church meeting and discuss some techniques for presenting experience to readers in ways that conform more closely to the […]
Episode 5: Richland Avenue
In this episode of Line Edits, we discuss some of the ways we make connections between parts of sentences: keeping pronoun-antecedent relationships clear, keeping subjects close to verbs, and aligning […]
Episode 4: Canoe Trip
In this episode of Line Edits, we look at a story about a canoe trip and talk about nominative absolutes and the habit of giving important ideas their own clauses.
Episode 3: Old Porch
In this episode of Line Edits, we discuss the importance of appealing to as many of the five senses as possible, as well as incorporating motion and contrast. We also […]
Episode 2: Dinner Bell
In Episode 2 of Line Edits, we discuss opening lines, the perils of asking the reader to figure things out, and the curse of knowledge.