What is the difference between literature and propaganda? According to Aldous Huxley, propaganda dehumanizes. How can we counter dehumanization in our writing? Continue reading The Dividing Line: Propaganda, Literature, and the Human Heart
Many lessons can be drawn from Andersen’s “The Psyche”. The one that most impressed itself upon my heart as a writer is the enduring quality of our work. Continue reading To the Despairing Artist
Writing is a craft we should seek to hone all our lives, and our blades are sharpened whenever we read (or reread) quality stories. What, then, shall we read? Continue reading The Importance of Reading Earnest(ly)
“We are therefore wisely framed to be as warmly interested for a fictitious as for a real personage. The field of imagination is thus laid open to our use and lessons may be formed to illustrate and carry home to the heart every moral rule of life.” Continue reading The Field of Imagination: Thomas Jefferson on Fiction
Does compelling fiction augment reality? On the contrary, I would argue, it compresses reality, so that we can begin to comprehend its vastness within the scope of our limited perspective. Continue reading Does Fiction Give Us Unrealistic Expectations?
You’ve just closed a great book, your heart is bursting with too many emotions to name, and you’re startled to find that the world has still been turning without you. How do we give our own readers that experience? Here are three key elements that go a long way toward making a story unforgettable. Continue reading The End: Arriving at a Poignant Finale
Why do we write? Many writers might answer, “Because I can’t not write,” and leave it at that. And that may be true. But why? Surely a story fulfills some intrinsic need. Continue reading What Is Fiction For?
Olivia Hofer 