Brevity / Dinty W. Moore
@dintywmoore.bsky.social
Editor of Brevity, a small magazine with big ambitions. Author of various books. Often can't decide if I am posting as myself or as the magazine.
Reposted by Brevity / Dinty W. Moore
As if writing a book isn't hard enough, you then have the embarrassing agony of selling it. @leapage75.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/01/02/w... #writingcommunity #writinglife #authorlife #creativewriting
Are All Writers Masochists? No, But It Helps
By Lea Page So, you write a book. You conceive of an idea, or you start putting words down on paper with no idea at all, just a sense of urgency, of necessity. If you are me, you scoff at the sugge…
brevity.wordpress.com
January 3, 2026 at 8:15 AM
As if writing a book isn't hard enough, you then have the embarrassing agony of selling it. @leapage75.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/01/02/w... #writingcommunity #writinglife #authorlife #creativewriting
"Now you have to ... morph into a seller, a market savant, a paperboy, at the least, who can stand on a strategic corner and hawk your wares with a pithy tagline, a hook, a one-page query letter for agents, an elevator pitch." ~ Lea Page brevity.wordpress.com/2026/01/02/w...
Are All Writers Masochists? No, But It Helps
By Lea Page So, you write a book. You conceive of an idea, or you start putting words down on paper with no idea at all, just a sense of urgency, of necessity. If you are me, you scoff at the sugge…
brevity.wordpress.com
January 2, 2026 at 12:10 PM
"Now you have to ... morph into a seller, a market savant, a paperboy, at the least, who can stand on a strategic corner and hawk your wares with a pithy tagline, a hook, a one-page query letter for agents, an elevator pitch." ~ Lea Page brevity.wordpress.com/2026/01/02/w...
“When nothing new can get in, that’s death. When oxygen can’t find a way in, you die. But new is scary, and new can be disappointing, and confusing—we had this all figured out, and now we don’t. New is life.” ~ @annelamott.bsky.social
January 2, 2026 at 12:01 PM
“When nothing new can get in, that’s death. When oxygen can’t find a way in, you die. But new is scary, and new can be disappointing, and confusing—we had this all figured out, and now we don’t. New is life.” ~ @annelamott.bsky.social
"Don’t ask what’s going to happen; be what happens." ~ Rebecca Solnit / @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social
January 1, 2026 at 11:46 AM
"Don’t ask what’s going to happen; be what happens." ~ Rebecca Solnit / @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social
Reposted by Brevity / Dinty W. Moore
"I pull for shore and stand up proud."
My final published words of 2025, inspired by a long-ago whitewater raft trip, are a perfect summary of where I am at the end of this stupefyingly turbulent year.
Uber thanks to all at Brevity Blog @dintywmoore.bsky.social
#WritersofBlueSky #WriteSky
My final published words of 2025, inspired by a long-ago whitewater raft trip, are a perfect summary of where I am at the end of this stupefyingly turbulent year.
Uber thanks to all at Brevity Blog @dintywmoore.bsky.social
#WritersofBlueSky #WriteSky
Writing the Rapids
By Ellen Notbohm “Just remember to hold your breath in the troughs and breathe deep in the crests,” instructed our river rafting guide. I stood with my brother and nephew on a rocky path above a sh…
bit.ly
December 31, 2025 at 4:18 PM
"I pull for shore and stand up proud."
My final published words of 2025, inspired by a long-ago whitewater raft trip, are a perfect summary of where I am at the end of this stupefyingly turbulent year.
Uber thanks to all at Brevity Blog @dintywmoore.bsky.social
#WritersofBlueSky #WriteSky
My final published words of 2025, inspired by a long-ago whitewater raft trip, are a perfect summary of where I am at the end of this stupefyingly turbulent year.
Uber thanks to all at Brevity Blog @dintywmoore.bsky.social
#WritersofBlueSky #WriteSky
Reposted by Brevity / Dinty W. Moore
FAVORITE STORIES OF 2025
Potshots by @jtwattles.bsky.social in @dintywmoore.bsky.social
brevitymag.com/current-issu...
Potshots by @jtwattles.bsky.social in @dintywmoore.bsky.social
brevitymag.com/current-issu...
Potshots | Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction
brevitymag.com
December 31, 2025 at 12:16 PM
FAVORITE STORIES OF 2025
Potshots by @jtwattles.bsky.social in @dintywmoore.bsky.social
brevitymag.com/current-issu...
Potshots by @jtwattles.bsky.social in @dintywmoore.bsky.social
brevitymag.com/current-issu...
A magazine article challenged me to "write what scares and compels me, and I’ve ridden the literary whitewater many years since: I hold my breath through the troughs and breathe on the crests. I pull for shore and stand up proud." ~ Ellen Notbohm
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/31/w...
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/31/w...
Writing the Rapids
By Ellen Notbohm “Just remember to hold your breath in the troughs and breathe deep in the crests,” instructed our river rafting guide. I stood with my brother and nephew on a rocky path above a sh…
brevity.wordpress.com
December 31, 2025 at 12:13 PM
A magazine article challenged me to "write what scares and compels me, and I’ve ridden the literary whitewater many years since: I hold my breath through the troughs and breathe on the crests. I pull for shore and stand up proud." ~ Ellen Notbohm
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/31/w...
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/31/w...
"Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go." ~ Brooks Atkinson
December 31, 2025 at 12:07 PM
"Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go." ~ Brooks Atkinson
Charlotte Wilkins advises writers to think of paragraphs in need of revision as a "puzzle you’ve never seen before and don’t have the picture on the cover of the box to refer to."
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/c...
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/c...
Creative Chaos Theory: Your Essay Begins Here
By Char Wilkins A writer friend, struggling with an essay, complained, “We all hate when we write and write and write and then realize the story starts on Page Two. But golly, when the inciting inc…
brevity.wordpress.com
December 30, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Charlotte Wilkins advises writers to think of paragraphs in need of revision as a "puzzle you’ve never seen before and don’t have the picture on the cover of the box to refer to."
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/c...
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/c...
“Stories are written and told by and for people who have been broken, but who have risen up, or will rise, if attention is paid to them. Those people are you and us. Stories and truth are splints for the soul.” ~ Anne Lamott
December 30, 2025 at 12:11 PM
“Stories are written and told by and for people who have been broken, but who have risen up, or will rise, if attention is paid to them. Those people are you and us. Stories and truth are splints for the soul.” ~ Anne Lamott
Reposted by Brevity / Dinty W. Moore
brilliant pal @cooperdart.bsky.social on [conceptual art] for @dintywmoore.bsky.social !!! brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/29/s...
Sentences on [The Essay]
By Cooper Dart (with thanks to Sol Lewitt) Cooper Dart This past winter, during the final year of my MFA program, I took a class on poetics, and the only thing we as a course could agree upon at th…
brevity.wordpress.com
December 29, 2025 at 6:14 PM
brilliant pal @cooperdart.bsky.social on [conceptual art] for @dintywmoore.bsky.social !!! brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/29/s...
"The [essayist] cannot imagine their [essay], and cannot perceive it until it is complete." ~ Cooper Dart (and Sol Lewitt) brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/29/s...
Sentences on [The Essay]
By Cooper Dart (with thanks to Sol Lewitt) Cooper Dart This past winter, during the final year of my MFA program, I took a class on poetics, and the only thing we as a course could agree upon at th…
brevity.wordpress.com
December 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM
"The [essayist] cannot imagine their [essay], and cannot perceive it until it is complete." ~ Cooper Dart (and Sol Lewitt) brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/29/s...
"The world is big and wide and wild and wonderful and wicked, and our lives are murky, magnificent, malleable, and full of meaning. Oremus. Let us pray.” ~ Pádraig Ó Tuama
December 29, 2025 at 11:59 AM
"The world is big and wide and wild and wonderful and wicked, and our lives are murky, magnificent, malleable, and full of meaning. Oremus. Let us pray.” ~ Pádraig Ó Tuama
"Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused - in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened - by the recurrence of Christmas." ~ Charles Dickens
December 25, 2025 at 11:45 AM
"Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused - in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened - by the recurrence of Christmas." ~ Charles Dickens
Reposted by Brevity / Dinty W. Moore
Beautiful essay Thank you to everyone who supports other creatives: brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/h.... #brevityblog @dintywmoore.bsky.social
An Open Letter to Your Family and Friends This Holiday Season
By Heidi Croot On a sunny October afternoon last year, my 33-year-old cousin told me his recovery program involved group writing, and he’d written a love letter to his recently deceased parents. I …
brevity.wordpress.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Beautiful essay Thank you to everyone who supports other creatives: brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/h.... #brevityblog @dintywmoore.bsky.social
"You have the power to change your writer’s life, and with the holidays coming, the time is now. Your gift list couldn’t be easier." ~ @heidicroot.bsky.social / Heidi Croot
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/h...
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/h...
An Open Letter to Your Family and Friends This Holiday Season
By Heidi Croot On a sunny October afternoon last year, my 33-year-old cousin told me his recovery program involved group writing, and he’d written a love letter to his recently deceased parents. I …
brevity.wordpress.com
December 23, 2025 at 2:50 PM
"You have the power to change your writer’s life, and with the holidays coming, the time is now. Your gift list couldn’t be easier." ~ @heidicroot.bsky.social / Heidi Croot
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/h...
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/h...
"Although you’ve got plenty of facts, some must stay in the drawer. The best add sparkle to the narrative to embellish the characters’ world and actions." ~ Andrea Eschen brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/f...
Telling It Like It Was: Selecting the Right Facts for Nonfiction Narrative
By Andrea Eschen From a kitchen drawer, I pull out a silver spoon and squint to decipher the engraving in German of the name of my great-grandfather’s brother and 1865, his first birthday. Stashed …
brevity.wordpress.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:14 PM
"Although you’ve got plenty of facts, some must stay in the drawer. The best add sparkle to the narrative to embellish the characters’ world and actions." ~ Andrea Eschen brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/f...
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie
December 23, 2025 at 12:08 PM
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie
“Collect and squirrel away in your soul certain odd moments when the Mystery winks at you.” ~ Denis Johnson
December 22, 2025 at 11:55 AM
“Collect and squirrel away in your soul certain odd moments when the Mystery winks at you.” ~ Denis Johnson
"After the longest night, tomorrow we sing up the dawn. There is a rejoicing that, even in the darkest time, the sun is not vanquished" - Dacha Avelin
December 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
"After the longest night, tomorrow we sing up the dawn. There is a rejoicing that, even in the darkest time, the sun is not vanquished" - Dacha Avelin
"There’s something intangible and irreplicable about the impact of meeting friends in their home spaces and in mine. But at the same time, on the Blog, somewhat magically, the virtual space makes the distances disappear." ~ @andreafirth.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/19/p...
The Distance Between Us—Bridging the Gaps Between Writers
By Andrea A. Firth Andrea and Claudia Last month, I traveled from northern California to New Zealand with my husband. Before we left, I reached out to Claudia Rapp, Brevity Blog’s all-things-behind…
brevity.wordpress.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:17 PM
"There’s something intangible and irreplicable about the impact of meeting friends in their home spaces and in mine. But at the same time, on the Blog, somewhat magically, the virtual space makes the distances disappear." ~ @andreafirth.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/19/p...
"If the world is torn to pieces, I want to see what story I can find in fragmentation." ~ Terry Tempest-Williams
December 19, 2025 at 12:52 PM
"If the world is torn to pieces, I want to see what story I can find in fragmentation." ~ Terry Tempest-Williams
Reposted by Brevity / Dinty W. Moore
Something more meaningful than mugs - a fresh and wise take on Christmas gifts for writers. @allisonkwilliams.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/18/g... #writingcommunity #Christmas2025 #writinglife #authorlife #skywriters
The Gifts Writers Really Want
By Allison K Williams Mini-sausages in a paper cone. So you can wander the Marché de Noël while nibbling sausages, of course. Greetings from my holiday road trip, where every small European town ha…
brevity.wordpress.com
December 19, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Something more meaningful than mugs - a fresh and wise take on Christmas gifts for writers. @allisonkwilliams.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/18/g... #writingcommunity #Christmas2025 #writinglife #authorlife #skywriters
"Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait two years to know whether or not it is funny." ~ Alain de Botton
December 18, 2025 at 12:24 PM
"Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait two years to know whether or not it is funny." ~ Alain de Botton
Reposted by Brevity / Dinty W. Moore
When our online digital lives require so much of us, when do we get time for our books? @danalaq.bsky.social @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/17/d... #writinglife #authorlife #creativewriting #publishing
Digital Debris: Clearing the Clutter to Make Room for Real Writing
By Dana Laquidara Last month, while traveling for a wedding, I accidentally tossed my phone into the ocean. I was wiping the lens off and it slipped out of my hand. Then a wave came. After searchin…
brevity.wordpress.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:09 AM
When our online digital lives require so much of us, when do we get time for our books? @danalaq.bsky.social @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/17/d... #writinglife #authorlife #creativewriting #publishing