In the novella of Train Dreams, Grainier participates in an act of racial violence, whereas in the movie he tries, ineffectually, to stop it. So his great sin, the moral hinge of the entire movie, is that he . . . did the right thing except not hard enough?

It was an honor to serve as judge for the Georgia Author of the Year Awards in the category of Detective/Mystery. Congratulations to the winner Wanda Morris and the finalist Brian Panowich!!! You can read my judge's statements here:
www.authoroftheyear.org/judgesstatem...

"Generative" has overtaken "practical" as the most common precursor to "craft talk." This is no a good development, folks

Too many people conflate autofiction with autobiographical fiction. The latter is fiction based on the most interesting parts of an author's life. The former is fiction based on the most boring parts of an author's life

So much about the quality of movies went downhill with the addition of those words at the foot of that peak

Sometimes I suspect not only my professional aesthetic but also my entire personality stems from the fact I saw Spaceballs before I saw Star Wars

Whenever people tease me for bemoaning the poor craftsmanship in so much of today's fiction, I imagine a carpenter looking at a table made by another carpenter. All its right angles are a few degrees off; nail heads poke out everywhere. How can you muster the appetite to eat at that table?

The first episode of Poker Face’s second season astonished me. I’ve never seen a more drastic drop-off in quality between seasons. It was almost like those sisters were played by the same actress using crappy green-screen and shoddy camera-work

Some great insights in this review:

www.vulture.com/article/ocea...

I'm so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to live and work in the town of Piggott and to serve as a mentor for its writers' retreat! The retreat is June 16-20, for anyone who's interested

www.astate.edu/news/snowden...

As a kid, I often heard the phrase "comma splice" but never understood what it meant. My brain couldn't fathom how anyone would connect two independent clauses with a comma. That would break a precept of grammar as fundamental as gravity. And to be honest? I still can't fathom it

Come talk shop at the Yokshop! Faculty includes the great @oliviaclare.bsky.social and @kentwascom.bsky.social, with craft talks from Scott Morris, Anne Gisleson, and, last but least, me! It's in Oxford, MS, a town that mints writers like ice cream does chocolate chips
www.theyokshop.com/home.html

Jay Gatsby, bootlegger. To Kill a Mockingbird, courtroom drama. The tropes of crime fiction can be found in even the most highly regarded novels. Next weekend, I'll discuss what any writer, regardless of their genre, can steal from crime fiction. Come on by!
www.redclayconference.org

In The Last of Us, Joel's deep, dark "secret" of having--checks notes--saved Ellie's life is a great example of manufactured tension. It reads false because it is false

Me, after reading the description of the new Pynchon novel: Why wasn't this copyedited? The grammar's awful!
Me, after learning Pynchon wrote the description himself: Why wasn't this copyedited? The grammar's awful!

Cinema is to blame for bad fiction like penicillin is to blame for the clap. Aside from a lack of interiority--which, yes, can be blamed on visual mediums--the problems with today's fiction would actually be solved by emulating film and TV
snowdenwright.substack.com/p/presented-...

Ever heard of free indirect style? It's only the most important thing for a fiction writer to learn. Here's a vade mecum on the topic:
snowdenwright.substack.com/p/brackish-w...