Beth

Characters like Nikolai and Stoner, who react to life more often than they “take action”—whatever that term means—are often labeled by my students as passive characters. Sometimes a student is advised by his or her peers to give characters “higher stakes” or “more agency .” This tends to lead me to groan internally. Isn’t living from day to day eno... See more

Thinking through —rather than just thinking—is important. A thought or an idea is never that precious. People have thoughts and ideas all the time, many of them preliminary. Sometimes people mistake their feelings for thoughts and ideas, which are in turn mistaken for absolute truths. The point of writing and reading fiction is not to stay with the... See more

From the ribs up, there’s no xylitol pain, and ribs-up is where the tender will most be enjoyed, mouth and the top of the stomach. Might as well have some pleasure in the mouth. I am not someone who finds stomach pain to be an appetite suppressant. Physical pain and food pleasure are two radio channels I can listen to simultaneously. The food might... See more

For a long time, I didn’t really take notes as I read. I didn’t know how . But over the years, I built a process of notetaking that was mostly underlining and writing gay in the margins.

For a long time, I didn’t really take notes as I read. I didn’t know how . But over the years, I built a process of notetaking that was mostly underlining and writing gay in the margins.

The recurring hypocrisy makes me wonder: Do we *actually* not want people to go through what we went through....or do we secretly think what we went through is foundational to good work?

Let’s have discovering and nurturing our true selves become our special interest — and I promise you, together we will see a better world be revealed in our lifetime.

Miller ended up writing thousands and thousands of words all centered around a puzzle she wanted to solve: what caused the majority of Germans to comply with horrific authority, and what caused a minority to resist?

According to Miller, it is an issue of embodied humanity. She wrote: “Our capacity to resist has nothing to do with our intelligence bu... See more