What I'm Reading

Book discussions with a focus on the writer's craft

Writers' Toolbox

Elements of craft discussed in this blog:

Writing about a sibling relationship (3)
Using the structures a character creates as a window into the character (2)
Defining character through dialogue (2)
Using an image to show what the character is feeling (2)
Sustaining a core mystery (2)
Witholding information to create a magnetic character (2)
Fictionalizing an historic figure (2)
Preparing for an unexpected turn (2)
Advance Preparation (2)
Creating voice-driven sentences (2)
Preparing for the extraordinary by evoking the mundane (1)
Setting a performance within a novel: what it can achieve (1)
Creating a guide character (1)
The long approach: Opening a novel with a sweeping introductory vision (1)
Creating a shadowed life: the slow trickle of an unsettled past (1)
Using an object to reveal and distinguish a character (1)
Setting up a reversal (1)
Using a first person voice to drive the narrative (1)
Withholding the novel's intention (1)
Using a small space to build tension between two characters (1)
Hiding the narrative design (1)
Planting a seed of disorder within each character to grow into a believable chaos (1)
Using mystery to define the limits of a character's experience (1)
The Ticking Clock: Using the calendar to escalate tension (1)
Building a novel around a single theme (1)
Achieving transparency in scene and dialogue to reveal emotional turmoil (1)
Balancing a novel's emotional terrain through character (1)
Using plot to create false assumptions about what will happen. (1)
Connecting different characters through the unifying element of shared disorder (1)
Developing a strong narrator presence through tone (1)
Changing the point of view to add emphasis (1)
Using objects to create time markers in a fluid timeline (1)
Staging a surprise ending (1)
Using backstory to enhance the reader's empathy for a character (1)
Avoiding sensationalism in a novel about the abuse of boundaries (1)
Giving the reader more information than the protagonist has (1)
Maintaining two narrative timelines (1)
Making a character come alive through visual details (1)
Rising action leading to a climactic scene (1)
Retelling the Oedipus Myth in a gender-fluid and time-fluid story (1)
Using a flat character to add momentum to a narrative (1)
How extended dialogue can prepare for a moment of decision (1)
Reinventing a well-known character (1)
A story within a story (1)
Developing character through visual transformation (1)
Understanding the effects of using white space and the present tense (1)
Creating an unmoving presence at the center of a novel (1)
A novel with contradictory parts (1)
Creating mystery in the first chapter (1)
Grounding a Novel in Historical Events (1)
Making use of the direct address form in a novel (1)
Addressing moral issues (1)
Preparing for the extraordinary by invoking the mundane (1)
Introducing a round character (1)
Creating the momentum for change: viewing a familiar character from a new perspective (1)
Misleading the Reader: a tool for building momentum (1)

The Gospel of Orla by Eoghan Walls

Sep 22, 2026

The Gospel of Orla, Eoghan Walls's first novel, is a coming of age story. It took me into the world of a tough, youthful narrator who must grow up quickly when she finds herself in extraordinary…

Radical Empathy by Robin Romm

Aug 26, 2026

Robin Romm's new collection of stories is...well, it's delicious. Admittedly, that's an odd description for a book, but it fits because Romm's short fiction involves appetites. The raw needs of the…

Megan Staffel

Megan Staffel

What I'm Reading

Writers' Toolbox

The Gospel of Orla by Eoghan Walls

Radical Empathy by Robin Romm

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