build Craft Archives

The Magic List

Issue No. 278 ~ July, 2020

Writers love lists, and locked-down writers adore them. These days we have more time for them, and they fill moments when creative inspiration fades. Usually, we greedily grab creative writing time from paid work, grocery shopping, family obligations, and so on. Still, in stay-home COVID-19 …

Trust the Path

Issue No. 257 ~ October, 2018

In my artistic calendar, the new year starts on the first day of October. And every time, even though the past experiences taught me to anticipate what would follow, the second half of September, which embodies the fear of the transformation before the change of …

Write with the Heat

Issue No. 256 ~ September, 2018

A few days ago, the writer I admire shared on social media that the summer had tricked her into a loss of creative energy and a loss of confidence. Many other writers joined the conversation reporting similar and hostile effects of summer. The knowing that I …

The House Rules of the American Short Story

Issue No. 49 ~ June, 2001

If you follow these rules, you are guaranteed to produce an American Short Story Masterpiece. Begin with both feet on the ground. Grab the reader by the throat and don’t let go until they are gasping for breath or pass out. Clearly identify in your …

Rules of Torture

Issue No. 42 ~ November, 2000

Writing is serious play, but it is most certainly play. Dare yourself to do something in your work that you've never done before.

Two Truths and a Lie

Issue No. 34 ~ March, 2000

Doing the ten exercises below will improve your sex life. The ten exercises below can be used to teach writing students, or you can use them yourself to generate fresh ideas for poems, stories, or essays. I owe many thanks to the dozens of professional …

Swiveling My Hips through the Interbunk

Issue No. 32 ~ January, 2000

Like early cinematography, hypertext is a complex art form with an emerging set of rules and conventions. These conventions are so new they defy most attempts to exhaustively describe them...

How-To : An Example

Issue No. 13 ~ June, 1998

1. ha! I like this a lot 2. The first phrase may not be needed. 3. As clever as it is, I’m trying to justify the absence of sentence closures… yes, I think the irony in that works quite well. 4. You know this implies …