Close Reading Your Draft: How to Critically Assess Your Own Writing

HOW TO CHECK AN AI-generated Fiction

AI-generated fiction is generic, but you can use an AI tool as a writing prompt. Then, you can work on your authentic storytelling by noting unique elements that reflect depth, individuality, and creativity. We do not recommend writing fiction using AI but if you used generic texts generated by an AI tool as your main writing prompt, assess your draft critically using the basic guidelines below. This list is not exhaustive but all are necessary critical points in your crafting.

HOW TO WRITE A BOOK REVIEW AFTER DERRIDA AND BARTHES

Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes, two influential thinkers, radically changed how we view texts. Their ideas of deconstruction and the "death of the author" offer a fresh lens for book reviews. By using Derrida and Barthes' ideas, you can make your book reviews more interesting and connect better with your audience. Start by seeing that a text can have many different meanings. Instead of saying it's "good" or "bad," explore its different parts.

Page Ticks for a Larger-than-Life Picture on the Memoir Page

Page ticks is a coined word for the habits, quirks, phrases, and actions that add texture and authenticity to a memoir. Great memoirs are engaging because they weave characters in a way that leaves them with a larger-than-life picture on the page.

Book Ends as Metaphorical Frame

The inside pages of a memoir, the chapters, vignettes, and narrative arcs are snapshots of lived experience. Each has its weight, tone, and complexity. Without a strong, guiding framework, these moments might feel scattered or aimless. The book ends frame the narrative with a clear beginning and end, organic unity, and closure.

How to Read as a Writer: Mark the Page, Practice Close Reading

To mark the page is to engage with the book we are reading by taking notes, highlighting passages, or annotating our responses in the margins. We take note not only of what stands out but why it does. As we copy those striking quotations, we also ask why they caught our attention in the first place. And we must understand why we are impressed with a rhythm, imagery, or word choice.

Write Motif: A Technique for Memoir Writing

Memoirs weave memory, emotion, and insight. To enrich the tapestry of our memoir, we can master various literary devices, one of which is the motif. Used intentionally, the write motif offers continuity and depth, echoing themes and ideas throughout our memoir. But how do we deploy the write motif in our memoir?

Skip a Page: When Memories Resist Conventional Narrative

Skip a page when some memories resist the bounds of conventional narrative; they emerge as something different, something more like fiction, poetry, or even drama. These memories speak a language that an essay can’t fully capture, calling for an entirely new form, to breathe as they need to, writing life as a short story, poem or play.