I dedicate this blog to the developing writers I’ve taught at the Prague Summer Program, Western Michigan University, and the UCLA Writers’ Program, writers whose passion for writing has inspired me, whose dedication to improving their work has moved me, and who have taught me to think more deeply about the craft of writing fiction. For many years I resisted hosting a personal website, preferring instead to promote the characters I’ve written and hiding behind them like a mask. The last thing the world needs is another blog by a soon to be dead (in the cosmic sense) white male writer, but a blog that discusses the techniques involved in writing fiction might earn its space on the Internet.

The craft blog may be only one of several pages on this website, but it’s the most vital one. I intend it to serve not only developing writers – and I hope that I’m still among the developing – but also teachers of creative writing. If I frame a technical issue in a way that you might find useful in your teaching, please don’t hesitate to crib from these pages.

Some of the posts will present elemental issues of craft, and others will explore more complex technical issues. The posts won’t aim to be definitive because that would take pages and pages of text; instead, I intend to articulate a specific angle on each issue. I hope you find them of some use.