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November 07, 2019
Where Ideas Begin
Questions every writer is familiar with: “Where did you get the idea?” or “How did you decide what to write about?”How did Denis Johnson decide to make a character obsessed with Elvis Presley’s ...
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November 12, 2019
Keeping Momentum
After the initial idea for a story is grounded, but before there’s enough material for real revisions and edits, writers are somehow expected to get words on the page. This is intimidating! Here a couple ...
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November 15, 2019
Revision Part One
Revision, where the piled fragments of a draft shift and reassemble, is my favourite part of writing. It’s where the most substantial changes happen, and a story is overhauled in ways that are surprising ...
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November 19, 2019Revision Part Two, Long Projects
Short stories, essays, or poems are wonderful to revise—I say this while I’m revising a longer project, but story length does make a difference. You can reading through a short draft in an afternoon, ...
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October 03, 2017Gillian Sze on the Meaning Behind her New Title
For the non-botanists among us, the title of Gillian Sze's bold new poetry collection Panicle (ECW Press) may initially be puzzling. But that challenge - to work a little harder, to look a little closer, ...
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November 25, 2019Offstage Magic
Festival season is over, and I’m still reeling from all the conversations and questions that have arisen offstage. What it is about the magic of writers without microphones, with cups of coffee and ...
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April 19, 2021Play to your strengths: a short guide to arts admin for emerging artists
And we're back! As promised, these last two weeks of Careful Inventory are a bit lighter, more directly applicable in the pandemic—thanks for sticking with me so far! We’ve covered online safety, ...
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April 12, 2021Practice in the mirror: "I don't answer that question," and other helpful phrases for poets
Welcome to week two of Careful Inventory, poets and friends! Thanks so much for coming back or tuning in. As promised, today’s post is an opportunity for you to practice setting some boundaries that ...
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January 12, 2024Read an Excerpt from Secret Sex, an Anthology of R-Rated Fiction Written Anonymously by CanLit's Finest
24 stories, all of them firmly NSFW, make up the cheeky new collection Secret Sex, edited by Russell Smith (Dundurn Press/Rare Machines). Smith gathered 24 of the most acclaimed authors in the country, ...
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July 30, 2024Read an Excerpt from The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley
Award-winning writer and filmmaker Alex Pugsley has reached the middle of his recent trilogy of novels, with the author bringing the reader back into the world of Aubrey Mckee, who is winding his way ...
