All of this reflection, eventually, produced a name for the sense I had for what was missing in my writing and what unifies the pieces I enjoy the most: wonder.
Two-Way Storytelling
It took growing my confidence as a writer, and reflecting on oral storytelling traditions and the performative nature of language, to realize that storytelling isn’t a one-way street, that I am not so much telling a story, dictating it via text, as I am sharing it with a fellow traveler along the journey that the story describes.
A Short Story Argument
Think of argument as how a story bridges to reality
Always Another Story
You can submit to rejection and feedback without these being critiques of yourself, rather than just your story, because there will always be another story.
Patterns and Poetry in Prose
With poetry remaining, for now, something of a mystery, I've turned my attention towards instead applying certain poetically derived techniques to my prose.
Reality-Proximal Storytelling
If we take the complete, whole-cloth invention of a new world as one extreme, and reality-proximal stories set firmly in our world as the other, then what I'm interested in talking about today is the middle ground.
Reflections on the Performative Nature of Language
When we consider the organic and evolving nature of language, it becomes clear that the medium in which we as writers work is at once both a static means of information storage, and a dynamic, independent artform allowing the author to engage in a unique interaction with each reader.
Diné Bahaneʼ Review
When I eventually came across Diné Bahaneʼ, billed as the Navajo creation story, it immediately went on my reading list, and I was even more excited when I began the book. Not only is Diné Bahaneʼ exactly what it claims to be, it is also a serious, scholarly treatment of the story, as accurately translated from an oral tradition as Zolbrod could manage.
A Common Mythos
I came across this essay recently on "The Power of Our New Pop Myths," which makes the argument that franchise-based storytelling in the style of Star Wars or Marvel is popular because it fulfils the same societal needs that have historically been filled by religious storytelling.
Back and Forth on Pacing
My recent reading of Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy set me to thinking about pacing in a more rigorous way than I have before.
IGC Publishing 