Category Archives: Essays

Thoughts on “Compassionate Simulation”, from PH Lee

Posted on November 6, 2019 by Mandolin

Lee and I did have a very intense process while writing this story. There were a lot of craft questions but because the subject matter of this is so intimate and intense — a child’s relationship with abusive and authoritarian … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Learn the Rules Before You Break Them. Or Don’t.

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Mandolin

I’m teaching my class on how to break the rules on Saturday, May 25th. Rules can put fiction in a box; let’s talk about ways to explode out of it. There’s an old adage: Learn the rules before you break … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Words Are Always There — Poetic Tools for Prose Writers

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Mandolin

Poetry is focused on words. So is prose! But the way we talk about words in poetry is different from the way we talk about them in prose. Merging the perspectives of poetry and prose has benefitted me enormously as … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Trains, Brains, and Computers

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Mandolin

When I teach my speculative fiction class (there’s a section this weekend, by the way!), I like to talk to the students about the most popular varieties of speculative poetry. A lot of speculative poetry is narrative, or works with … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Writing a Recalcitrant Character

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Mandolin

(This essay was posted 7 days early on my Patreon. Thank you to all my patrons!) I wrote this on a writers forum, about my current progress in writing my Tor.com novella, “Woman in the Tower Window.” It’s an interesting … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Patreon content for January 2018

Posted on January 31, 2019 by Mandolin

Patreon content for January has just been posted! $1 and above patrons can read a piece from my recent found poetry kick based on google searches for emotions–in this case, “anxiety.” $2 and above patrons get to see a sneak … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Open-Hearted Generosity at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Mandolin

Last weekend, I went to the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. I was honored to be there as a presenter, and I taught workshops on Breaking the Rules and Detail & Image. I also had two blue-pencil … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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How do you handle writer’s block?

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Mandolin

There are a few different kinds of writer’s block. One kind is medical. If one of my chronic illnesses is flaring up, I may not be able to write. It’s hard to write through a migraine, for instance. It’s also … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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In Defense of “Slice of Life” Stories

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Mandolin

When I was in college, I insisted that any poem worth its words would have a strong idea behind it–something it wanted to communicate to the reader. I still think that, but I’ve broadened my definition of what an idea … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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On Writing and Mortality

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Mandolin

This essay originally appeared on the blog Big Other and was later reprinted on the SFWA website. I’ve rewritten it to make its points more sharply and eliminate repetition. The original version is still available on the other sites. It was originally … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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