CRITICISM: WHO NEEDS IT? Criticism is easy, art is difficult Philippe Destouches [Philippe Nèricault] Constructive criticism is a profoundly ironic oxymoron. How can any form of a judgmental review be helpful? The media is chockful of cynical, hard-edged blog posts, articles, a

LITERARY WRITING – A WORLD of ADVENTURE Of all those arts in which the wise excel, Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well. Essay on Poetry [1682] John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham and Normanby   Authors are traditionally defined as writers, scribes, and creators of written w

GREETINGS DEAR SCRIBE, THIS IS CLIO CALLING: HAVE YOU MET YOUR MUSE?   Writing is an art form no less than painting, sculpting, drawing, composing melodies, lyrics, or poetry.   Theresa W. Bennett-Wilkes My newsletter was intended, no, it was suggested to me as a vehicle for sharing t

SPELLING, PUNCTUATION, and the CHALLENGES of GRAMMAR Or HOW TO WRITE GOOD  I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose=words in their best order; poetry=the best words in their best order.  Samuel Taylor Coleridge Table Talk [

  EDITING and PROOFREADING SPRINTING ACROSS the FINISH LINE  There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.  Maya Angelou   Dear Belletrist:   CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You have written your story! The initial draft is complete. Now I know you may be feeling wiped o

THE ART of STORYTELLING – PLOT DEVELOPMENT The writer who shuts himself up in a room and first goes on a journey inside himself will, over the years, discover literature’s eternal rule: he must have artistry to tell his own stories as if they were other people’s stories, and to tell o

An Orange Flash, a Blue Streak, and a Purple Passion The Allure of Colorful Writing  The captain says, “if you can’t dazzle with brilliance, baffle with bullshit.”   Colorful writing makes reading appealing, compelling, and memorable! Suffusing content with unforgettable, evocative, a

  FEELINGS: DON’T WRITE WITHOUT THEM He [the writer] must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lack