Shakespeare GIFs

Greetings! I’ve loved staying home with the new baby, but I’m looking forward to getting back in the classroom. This spring I’m teaching Bob Dylan as Literature & Inspiration at Arlington Community Education. What’s that all about? From the fairy-tale simplicity of “Girl from the North Country” to the surrealist panorama of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” to the autobiographical narrative of…

I wrote this email to Heavy Bored host Andrew Wittstadt the other day. Hi Andrew,Thought you might like an update. When we discussed [Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms], I was pretty unworried about pregnancy and labor complications. But I ended up having serious complications at the end of my pregnancy and actually needed a C-section. Not only that, but I had a bleed on the operating table!…

My discussion about Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms with Andrew Wittstadt on the Heavy Bored Podcast What does it mean for a work of literature to be universal? In the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary, The Vietnam War, there is an interview with a female North Vietnamese soldier. Before she left home to serve the communist cause, her parents gave her a copy of A Farewell to Arms. She…

To celebrate the final week of my chapbook sale, I’m talking about the inspiration behind both books, Sprawl and Illuminations. Each book was written at a different time in my life and emerged from completely different influences and styles. While Sprawl is a short story cycle of conventional tales exploring politically charged topics around class, gender and sexuality, Illuminations veers into…

Writers today face many distractions that can derail productivity and impact the writing process. With so many websites, apps, notifications, and rabbit holes competing for our attention, it can be challenging to focus and make progress on writing projects. Fortunately, Google Chrome offers some handy extensions that can help writers take control of their environment, build better habits, and…

A great story is defined by its characters. But developing characters that feel like real people is not easy, and it’s one of the aspects of story writing that my students ask me about the most. Advice for beginner writers often suggests making a list of your character’s favorite food, color and hobbies, along with a list of physical traits like hair and eye color. But think for a moment about…

Matt Wall is a punk Renaissance man, working across music, film, poetry, and science fiction. With his do-it-yourself ethos and no-permission-needed approach, Matt embodies the indie spirit. I was inspired by his unique attitude toward creation and publishing, so I asked if he’d share some tips on turning passion into action. Matt spoke about the raw, unedited nature of his poetry, his goal of…

After seeking an artistic way to share my writing with more people, I’ve designed two handmade chapbooks that I’m excited to share with you all. They are now available to buy in my Etsy shop. Each book has a cardstock cover and is printed in small batches. Illuminations: Fantasy Stories by Valerie Lute Enter the mirror world: whales grow feet and walk into Target, monks without heads perform…

Staring at a blinking cursor for hours leads to frustration for many writers. Burnout looms over marathon writing sessions. That’s why the pomodoro technique can be a game-changer for writers looking to boost productivity and prevent fatigue. The pomodoro technique is a time management system that utilizes timed intervals to enhance focus. By writing in short, distraction-free sprints, writers…

Getting published for the first time is a major milestone for any writer. Traditionally, emerging writers have gotten their start in literary journals. But what exactly are literary journals, and why should new writers care about them? Literary journals are periodicals focused on publishing fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and more from up-and-coming voices. When I was an MFA student,…

Are you interested in improving your writing this fall? I’m teaching two classes in Greater Boston. Writing the Strange At Cambridge Center for Adult Education, I’ll be teaching Writing the Strange. Take a break from reality. This class will explore strange, bizarre, and outlandish fiction, from the classics of Poe and Kafka to contemporary magical realists like Haruki Murakami. Each week we’ll…

This summer, I’m teaching Writing the Strange again at Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Take a break from reality. This class will explore strange, bizarre, and outlandish fiction, from the classics of Poe and Kafka to contemporary magical realists like Haruki Murakami. Each week we’ll share our writing out loud, receive feedback from the class, and complete writing exercises to unleash the…

Why do people keep giving such terrible advice?

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy When I was an MFA student, I couldn’t write a single line of exposition without my classmates circling it on their copies. “Show don’t tell,” they’d scrawl in the margins before handing me their feedback. For years, I tried to write without any exposition. Any backstory had to be told in…

Bob Dylan as Literature and Inspiration This spring, I’ll be teaching a new writing class, Bob Dylan As Literature and Inspiration, at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education on Brattle Street in Harvard Square. Our class beings on April 5th, 2023 and will take place over 8 Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:30. Bob Dylan is not just one of the great American songwriters, he’s an emanate storyteller.…

Happy NanoWriMo! BL Jasper offers advice on finishing that novel.

First, tell us about your novel. What is the story and what inspired you to tell it? A Dance of Djinn (working title) is the story of Fern and Dahlia, two circus performers who grew up in the traveling Circus of Reveries. Dahlia is a bookish, anxious witch with PTSD from her mother’s death, and Fern is a charismatic yet nerdy Latinx guy who sees the memories of the dead when he touches bones.…

Why I Write By Hand

Earlier this year, I talked to Bair Hurley at the Writerly Bites podcast about writing by hand. I write all my first drafts by hand, sometimes my second drafts too. I often recommend writing by hand to my beginner writing students who are afraid of the blank page. When we’re writing on a computer, it seems very formal immediately. Because that Times New Roman looks so neat and perfect in the Word…

The Difference Between Point-of-View in Books and Movies

We spend a lot of time consuming film-based entertainment. The average American watches nearly three hours of television a day. This influences how writers, especially beginner writers, imagine the scenes of their novel, memoir, or short story. Without even realizing it, they see the lens of their story like a camera panning across space. The characters become like actors, primarily expressing…