Fellow writers, Interested in accessing fresh corners the imagination? Maybe fielding a few surprising curveballs? Stuck, or looking for a new project? I'd love for you to join me next week. writingcraft.com/event/shake-...

To all of my friends far and wide, thanks for the support you have given this magazine over these past many years, and the support I hope you will continue to give Brevity as it moves forward into its 30th year. brevity.wordpress.com/2026/07/01/b...

Why dialogue - in memoir and in fiction - is not about explanations. @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/w... #writingcommunity #writerslife #writetip

What’s fascinating is how we circle around things, what we avoid saying, where we steer the conversation away from what we don’t want to reveal. brevity.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/w...

As if someone walked into a child’s playroom and dumped 85 additional Lego pieces onto the floor and said, ‘Okay kiddo, see you what you can build now.” brevity.wordpress.com/2026/06/29/t...

"Learning to write ... is a desperately idiosyncratic, eccentric, single-souled, lifelong quest." ~ Bret Lott

Writers: Interested in exercising the muscles of the imagination? Maybe fielding a few surprising curveballs? Shake It Loose! Unexpected Prompts and Nudges—on Zoom two weeks from now (July 8 @ 3:00-4:30 pm EDT). The $20 Early-Bird rate is good for another seven days. writingcraft.com/event/shake-...

“Writing is only one word at a time. Various things can present themselves, but when you face the page, it’s a couple of words, and then a couple more words, and, if you’re lucky, a sentence or a paragraph." ~ Jane Smiley

"they ask me to remember/ but they want me to remember / their memories / and i keep on remembering / mine." ~ Lucille Clifton

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.” ~ Anaïs Nin

"More than whether you live or die, it's how you are living or dying that is important." ~ Robert Thurman

"Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck." ~Tenzin Gyatso, The Dalai Lama

“I’m trying to write something so good, so pure, so perfect that I’ll never have to have children.” ~ Chelsea Hodson

"Memoir is often less about the events, and more about the mind who is experiencing them. " ~ Roz Morris / @rozmorris.bsky.social

Why would anyone want to read your memoir? How to put yourself on the page in your full glorious flawed complexity @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/06/04/w... #memoir #creativewriting #writingtips

"Hope is a waking dream." ~ Aristotle

"Writing is only one word at a time. It’s not a whole bunch of things happening at once. Various things can present themselves, but when you face the page, it’s a couple of words, and then a couple more words, and, if you’re lucky, a sentence or a paragraph.” ~ Jane Smiley

"Be awake enough to see where you are at any given time and how that is beautiful and has poetry inside.” ~ Jeff Buckley

Learn why exposition and explanation are not only unnecessary, they weaken the reader’s engagement with the scene. And how to fix it! Please join me tomorrow. writingcraft.com/event/making...

"... we invent our own beauty and our own paths and our own crooked, weird ways of doing things, but that they're not nothing and they matter, too." ~ Lidia Yuknavitch / @lidiamiles.bsky.social

Memoir writers: How can you signal the potent emotional stakes of your story without resorting to boring explanations and flat telling? Make the stakes clear __and__ hook your reader by remembering the lesson of the old barn. Join my webinar this Wednesday. writingcraft.com/event/making...

"Good writing works from a simple premise: your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone’s.” ~ Dorianne Laux

"Reach high with language – excite the reader. Choose words for their musicality as much as their aptness." ~ @nualaoconnor.bsky.social

"Writing should always be exploratory. There shouldn’t be the assumption that you know ahead of time what you want to express." ~ Marilynne Robinson

This is about memoir openings but is just as relevant for fiction. Find the emotion that invites the reader in - @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/05/27/m... #writingcommunity #writinglife #authorlife #creativewriting

"I am not being a told a story so much as being dropped directly into one. That’s what grabs your reader. That’s what holds them tight, and what makes them begin to care." brevity.wordpress.com/2026/05/27/m...

"You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. ~ Maya Angelou

"Art is the act of making choices in a charged field." ~ Dean Young

Readers don’t want explanations and promises. What readers crave is very specific: THEY WANT TO BE DROPPED INTO A GRIPPING STORY! Join me for a Zoom webinar— MAKING MEMOIR REAL— Wednesday, June 3rd, 3 to 4:30 PM EDT. Early bird price ($20) good for a few more days. writingcraft.com/event/making...

Let's make this 'kill your darlings' day! First, an argument for keeping them: @AnnaVodicka at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/05/22/k... #writingcommunity #writinglife #creativewriting

"You are living in the presence of mystery. And you tell me you have nothing to write about?" ~ Richard Rodriguez

As long as there are bluebirds, there will be miracles and a way to find happiness. ~ Shirl Brunnel

“All of us (writers] failed to match our dream of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.” ~ William Faulkner

"I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that’s the job of art." ~ Andre Dubus III

"Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon." ~ Ann Patchett

How much explanation does your reader need? @allisonkwilliams.bsky.social r on paring back @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/05/15/s... #writingcommunity #writingtips #creativelife #creativewriting

“Lean into the sharp points.” ~ Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

"Our telling shapes what the past becomes." ~Jen Gippel

"The author’s job is to plunge into that wide, deep river and bring to the surface what’s most relevant and revealing from the flotsam—and then take the reader by the hand and lead them in for a swim." ~ Tiffany Yates Martin @tiffanyyatesmartin.bsky.social

What we make when we write about the past - @JenGippel at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/05/08/e... #writingcommunity #memoir #CreativeLife

"I think that writing is a way of continuing to hope." ~ Lucille Clifton

What makes your travel narrative worthwhile for the reader? @MicaelaEdelson at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/05/11/t... #writinglife #travelwriting #writingtip #memoir

“My experience is, if you wait for inspiration, the moments of it are fewer and farther between. The main thing for writers is to show up—to say, ‘Muse, I’m here.’ ” ~ Robert Hass

“The unique thing about writers is that they write.” ~ Margaret Atwood

“I write to find my life. I write to save my life. I write to keep myself alive.” ~ Sue William Silverman

When removing an essay or a story thread is the right action... and it's only afterwards that you know. V familiar situation for me. @tamarajong at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2026/05/05/a... #writinglife #writingcommunity #creativewriting

"When we think we have something to say we are usually wrong. We are fooling ourselves. Trip into discovery. Don't write what you know, discover something new." ~ Marie Howe

"The writer’s gaze should be direct and should not aim to slavishly record reality but to x-ray it, to see its inner workings." ~ Robin Hemley / @rhemley.bsky.social

I love Harriet the Spy - and these are great tips from her book to keep you writing. brevity.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/h... in @dintywmoore.bsky.social

Brevity magazine has launched its 82nd issue of innovative flash nonfiction, featuring essays from Brenda Miller, Angela Edward, Hea-Ream Lee, Karissa Nevada, L.F. Khouri, Ann MacDonald, Emily W. Blacker, Erin Wood, Michael Singleton, Noel Thistle Tague, Sara Daniels, & T.C. Martin. brevitymag.com