writing
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“Super Sad True Habits”
At Tin House, Rumpus contributor Courtney Maum introduces us to the writing habits of “highly effective writers.” Part-one features many people we love, including Rumpus essays editor Roxane Gay and columnist Steve Almond.
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Real Talk from Your Editor
Check out this amazing Tumblr. The Rumpus editorial board is particularly fond of this one: When all of the important national mag awards go to white dudes. (Via Xtina Richards)
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“Mistakes Were Made”
At The New York Times, Constance Hale continues her writing lessons series with an exploration of the appropriate uses and pitfalls of the notorious passive voice. “…Some of the worst writing around suffers from inert verbs and the unintended use…
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“Perimeter-less Perimeters”
Believer co-founder and co-editor Heidi Julavitz writes about how online journals (such as The Rumpus!) caused the Believer to rethink some of its original tenets, including a strong resistance to virtualization. “Ultimately we risked losing readers, and we risked losing…
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Alexander Chee Interview
Grub Daily has a micro-interview with Alexander Chee. The author discusses the hardest writing criticism to give and receive, strange reader interactions, Middle-Earth, advice for would-be writers, and what he looks for in a new work. “As a reader, I…
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Zen and the Art of Pencil-Sharpening
I saw David Rees read once. The event was about politics; it was to introduce a political book whose title I have regrettably forgotten. (I went to support another friend.) I’d never heard of Rees before but he made an…
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Make-or-Break
Constance Hale’s New York Times series of writing lessons continues with wisdom on verbs. “Verbs kick-start sentences: Without them, words would simply cluster together in suspended animation. We often call them action words, but verbs also can carry sentiments (love,…
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“No, I’m the Narrator”
At The New York Times, author and Rumpus contributor Jami Attenberg writes about the the disorientation and fear that came when, after a break-up, her ex-boyfriend started a site about her. “Creating the blog might have been his grasp at…
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Rejection Practice
“The Rejection Generator rejects writers before an editor looks at a submission. Inspired by psychological research showing that after people experience pain they are less afraid of it in the future, The Rejection Generator helps writers take the pain out…
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Tumbling Tips
Galleycat consults Rachel Fershleiser of Tumblr literary outreach to bring us advice on how authors should use the blogging platform/social network. Fershleiser has the scoop on following, tagging, reblogging, and more.
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Word Choices
At The New York Times, Constance Hale contributes a series of writing lessons. Her latest entry, “Desperately Seeking Synonyms,” zeroes in on the complexities of nouns. “The best writers combine killer nouns and adjectives, and they can make dawn —…
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Charged Sentences
“It is by fussing with sentences that a character becomes clear to me, that a plot unfolds. To work on them so compulsively, perhaps prematurely, is to see the trees before the forest. And yet I am incapable of conceiving…