No Expectations

For those who do not know, the word “trope” has come to refer to a commonly recurring device used in storytelling. This could be a theme, a type of character, a situation, etc. that has been overdone to the extent that we’ve come to recognize them almost as soon as we see them—and we very…

Copy Other Pieces by Hand

This is another unexpected slice of writing advice bestowed upon me by a creative writing professor. His instruction was for us to get into the proper mindset for a specific tone or style by taking someone else’s work and writing it out several times by hand. It sounds odd, and I was quite skeptical of…