-
SFWA Membership
I’ve reached a new milestone as a poet and writer, and this is one I’ve been dreaming about since I first heard about professional writers organizations as a science fiction and fantasy-obsessed kid: I’m now an associate member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA.) The purpose of the Science Fiction and Fantasy…
-
A Guide to Workshops at The Writers Studio
It can be difficult to sort through all the offerings from the Writers Studio to pick which classes are best for you or the writer in your life to which you would like to gift a workshop. Here, then, is a guide to our offerings, depending on your writing goals and interests.
-
Reorganizing My Website, Reorganizing My Life
It’s time for a website reorganization that focuses entirely on writing and teaching while burying my past activities.
-
Free Writers Studio Class and Spring 2021 Workshops
Free Writers Studio Tucson class this Saturday, April 10 and information about my upcoming Spring 2021 workshops.
-
A Submission Process
In this new post, I will provide tips and resources so that my workshop students and other writers can submit their best work to potential markets.
-
Learning to Horror
After years of focusing on literary poetry and fiction, including completing my undergraduate education in creative writing and taking writing workshops, I’m finally embracing my original genre aspirations.
-
Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2019
I really, really, really want to reach 50,000 words in November and I want to do it in 2019 before the new decade starts and we’re in the far future.
-
Move It to the Top
I have learned a valuable lesson about writing this year as a result of teaching writing workshops. This led to a breakthrough in writing poetry that has transformed my poems in the past few months. Here is what I have learned.
-
Fall 2019 Writing and Teaching
I’m preparing lesson plans and writing new exercises for two fall workshops at the Writers Studio.
-
Summer 2019 Writing and Teaching
I’m currently preparing lesson plans and writing lessons for two summer 2019 workshops.
-
“Crafting Fantastic & Imaginative Worlds” at The Writers Studio!
I’m teaching a new 6-week workshop titled “Crafting Fantastic & Imaginative Worlds” and it uses The Writers Studio method of persona writing and critiquing. It begins Saturday, July 27, 2019.
-
Summer Writing Workshops at the Writers Studio!
Two options for the beginning level writing workshop: Saturday morning with me and Wednesday evenings with Lela Scott MacNeil.
-
Supporting Professional Payment Rates in Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Markets
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America sets the minimum payment rates for professional short fiction markets. In September, this rate rises from 6 cents per word to 8 cents per word.
-
The Limits of Success
I was not prepared for how much worse imposter syndrome would get once I started writing regularly, getting published, participating in public readings, teaching…
-
New Writing Instructor at the Writers Studio Tucson
I’m now a writing instructor at the Writers Studio in Tucson, Arizona and I’ll be teaching an 8-week introductory workshop in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction beginning Saturday, April 20th!
-
Alice Hatcher Craft Class
📚 I participated in a fantastic craft class today with Alice Hatcher, author of The Wonder That Was Ours. She was interviewed by Reneé Bibby, Director of the Writers Studio Tucson, and local students in the Master and Advanced workshops.
-
Horror 101: The Way Forward edited by Joe Mynhardt
Horror 101: The Way Forward edited by Joe Mynhardt explores a tremendous territory of information, advice, and experience with essays written by many different creatives who work in the genre.
-
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
The tone and humor might be a little dated, even insensitive and problematic at points, but there’s no question that Save the Cat by Blake Snyder is a book packed with useful, easily digestible, but comprehensive information.
-
Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2018
I’ve written an entire novel before, a few of them in fact, but I’ve never completed 50,000 words during National Novel Writing Month in November.
-
A Few General Tips About Attending Workshops
How you participate in class can mean the difference between a rewarding learning experience and an utter waste of your—and everyone else’s—time and money.
-
Sunday Task
How to group poems into manuscripts that will go out to several potential markets? I have no idea.
-
Notebook Full of Poetry Fragments
A tiny celebration for a small accomplishment: a little notebook full of handwritten poetry fragments.
-
Making the Poet
I don’t believe in natural talent. I use “believe” on purpose because I might be wrong; nevertheless, there’s more to talent than whatever innate capabilities a person might be born with that makes them prodigy and genius.
-
Counseling the Writer
Counseling, when you find the right counselor and when you engage with them honestly and with a willingness to do what they suggest, can work wonders and reshape your entire life.
-
A Writing Process
My writing process is just one example of a writing process that will hopefully inspire you to build your own.
-
The Writers Studio Experience
It occurs to me that I haven’t written much about The Writers Studio workshops I’ve been attending regularly for the past year. It has been such a positive experience that I think I have been trying to keep it all to myself. No more.
-
Art Is Sacrifice and Other Bullshit
The problem with some men (Many? Just me?) in their twenties is that they won’t shut up and listen. Instead they pronounce. Loudly. I pronounced on a writing forum that the only writers who are successful and published are those who sacrifice themselves entirely and painfully to their art. I called out people I believed would probably never be…
-
Musings: I Honestly Don’t Know What My Blog is For
Maybe this post is about isolation after all.
-
The Kick-Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig
The Kick-Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig includes over 30 lists of 25 tips about various subjects like writing, rewriting, craft, and publishing.
-
Musings: Fuck, Writing DOES Have Negative Consequences
I wrote a short response to the paper pointing out the Dark Enlightenment as a worrying contemporary example of where an ethic of expediency can lead. The response wasn’t what I expected.
-
The Years of Fantasy and Horror
I remember fondly buying a few editions of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling in the 1990s. I was in my twenties and while many of the stories and their level of craft were opaque to me at the time, I felt I had stumbled onto a…
-
“I Will Avenge Her!” Poor Writing and Characterization in Superhero TV Shows
What I am really noticing for the first time is how poorly written these TV shows are. The focus is on visual style and action, so getting from point A to point B doesn’t seem to require logic or coherency, and fleshing out characters doesn’t seem to be a priority.
-
Reading and Writing Following Twitch
So should writers give up writing, especially if reading is on the decline as other forms entertainment become much more popular?
-
Book-Making and Other Analog Treasures
This is the time to enjoy the way things used to be or are currently, before everything changes due to technology. A day of physical book making followed by watching VOD.
-
It Hurts
A long time ago when I lived in Rochester, New York, I stupidly wrote a letter to a coworker and mailed it to his home. It was not really a love letter, but it might as well have been.
-
Calm Waters
My sad public admission this week: I’m not very well read.
-
A Writing Journal
What was previously my blog – full of news, likes and commentary – should now, I think, become a writing journal, a document more closely related to the craft of writing.
Richard Leis
Horror Writer & Poet
You must be logged in to post a comment.