Ellen Raskin's layout concept for THE WESTING GAME. Image courtesy of the CCBC, UW-Madison.

Ellen Raskin’s design for pages of THE WESTING GAME.

 

If Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects) reads Ellen Raskin’s THE WESTING GAME every year or so, maybe we should, too?

What this childhood favorite can teach us about the writing process, from concept to draft to page design.  Plus, some behind-the-scenes peeks at Raskin’s drafts and something called a “Swipe File.”

Oh! and you can also try out Serendip-o-matic, a brand new app!

It’s all here at my latest post for Ploughshares!

On Louts, Shooting Dogs, and Antonya Nelson

It started because I wanted to shoot a dog. In a short story, that is. The stories for my first collection— then my doctoral dissertation— were character-driven epiphanies hinging on a character’s decision to act, or not to act. A story with a gun on page 1 and fired by the ending—this sounded like big, explosive fun. So I shoehorned a dog-shooting into a story that really didn’t need it.

My dissertation advisor looked over my draft and said,  “If you want to shoot an animal in a story, read ‘Fair Hunt,’ by Antonya Nelson.”

Read the complete post at The Missouri Review.

The Nifty Trick of Dan Chaon’s “A Little Something to Remember Me By”

Who would condemn the grieving parents of a long-lost, likely murdered boy? Who would turn these parents’ tears to treacle, their mourning into manipulation— and make the reader hate them, too? Dan Chaon would. It’s a nifty trick. And it’s one of the reasons I adore “A Little Something To Remember Me By,” from Chaon’s second collection, Among the Missing.

Read the complete post at The Missouri Review.