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I bet I.C.E. comes back for them later.
I'm surprised the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion aren't getting arrested seeing as they are not U.S. citizens. I…
Oh no, you've figured me out!
This comic went up on LeftyCartoons days before it went up here. That's a biologically male posting pattern from Barry!…
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Category Archives: Essays
Thoughts on “Compassionate Simulation”, from PH Lee
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
Learn the Rules Before You Break Them. Or Don’t.
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
Posted in classes, Essays, Writing Advice
3 Comments
The Words Are Always There — Poetic Tools for Prose Writers
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
Posted in classes, Essays, Writing Advice, Writing resources
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Writing a Recalcitrant Character
(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
Posted in Essays, Writing Advice
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Patreon content for January 2018
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
Posted in Essays, Fiction, Patreon, Rachel Swirsky's poetry
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Open-Hearted Generosity at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference
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
How do you handle writer’s block?
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
Posted in Essays, Writing Advice
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In Defense of “Slice of Life” Stories
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
Posted in Essays, Writing Advice
5 Comments
On Writing and Mortality
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
Posted in Essays, My publications
1 Comment
While Bob Hope was indeed an immigrant, white anglo saxon protestant male immigrants are explicitly welcomed by the current shitocracy…