Roleplayers and Writers: Why So Many Writers Love Playing Tabletop RPGs
I got into Dungeons & Dragons because I was too scared to publish. Like many writers, I have a paralyzing fear of wide scrutiny, of my love and hard work being torn apart or rejected out of hand before an audience can even see it. Some of us have even...
Face Your Fears: Why You Don’t Need to Avoid the Horror Genre
How often do you find yourself perusing the horror section at the library or bookstore? When do you find yourself wanting to read something that disturbs and unsettles you? Unless you’re like me, with a sick desire to be forever scarred by the literature I...
Minecraft as Storytelling
A little more than 10 years ago, I started to play Minecraft. At first, I just watched my father play Minecraft over his shoulder, but eventually, he got annoyed by my back-seat gaming, so he set me up with my own computer and Minecraft account. Once the...
Who Am I-Who Are You-Who Are They
All novels, essays, and short stories follow this rule; the narrator speaks from a point of view you can recognize. There are five commonly accepted PoV’s: First-Person, Second-Person, Third-Person-Limited, Third-Person-Omniscient, and Third-Person-Objective....
Five Twin Cities Coffee Shops to Visit for Your Next Writing Session
Writers have many methods to keep their brain rolling with ideas. I can attest to the countless hours wasted staring at a blank canvas, running around the house looking for things to keep me occupied as I waste time struggling for inspiration. When times get tough for...
Hybrid Books I Loved to Read with the Seasons
Spring: Bluets by Maggie Nelson “This deepest blue, talking, talking, always talking to you.” Maggie Nelson’s Bluets is one of my favorites due to its unwillingness to belong to any single genre. The poets call it poetry and the essayists call it a lyric essay, but...
Retell Your Own Folklores and Fairytales
Growing up, I am pretty sure many people have heard folklore and fairytale stories. Stories are one of the oldest forms of entertainment in the world. Pieces like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Three Little Pigs are all so well known that half the world...
Zelda Games That Have Inspired Me as a Writer
Hey, listen! Last year, the sequel to Breath of the Wild, the latest Zelda game, Tears of The Kingdom—on May 12, to be exact. In honor of this anniversary, I had to reflect on the Zelda games that helped make me a writer and chose my career path. I would not be the...
Words: Threads of Identity and Understanding
Isn’t it strange how words work in our world? Life is a story that invites us to read between the lines of our everyday experiences. Words are like threads, weaving together the fabric of our reality. Language impacts not just how we interact with the world, but our...
Harnessing the Power of the Absurd
Writing inspiration can come from so many sources, but what about from your own subconscious? It’s easier (and more fun) than you might think. The Surrealists were notorious for using their subconscious minds as a way to inform their creative process. Their methods...
“The Horror Renaissance” for Scaredy Cats
I heard mere fragments of my friends watching Smile (2022) from two rooms away and I’ve been sleeping with the lights on since. I loathe being scared. Yet, despite closing my eyes for the monster reveal every time I see a terrifying movie, I can’t seem to stop writing...
Three Ways to Spice Up Your Romance Writing
Love triangles. They’ve been all the rage recently, due in part to the wild popularity of novels like The Hunger Games and A Court of Thorns and Roses. (For the former, the brilliance of how the love triangle works is better explained in tumblr posts by users...
