No, we don’t have to describe every character. In fact, we don’t always have to describe the main character. The key is how much time readers will spend with that character, because description is an investment that only pays off if the character is featured later. If you’re writing...
Novelists work in a medium where they are allowed to describe too much. Playwrights can’t do this. They know that dialogue is the distillation of conflicts essential between people. There is almost no description in a play. It is all dialogue. No audience is going to sit and watch actors...
Radical feminist writers' work is never supposed to be "met" on its own terms, by the reader; there is no imperative on privileged people to do their homework, so to speak, before approaching the radical woman's material--inside or outside the academy. However, whole college courses and ...
Well, don’t despair, we can work towards a vision of the future we can all feel good about. In this post, I’m returning to politics, but in the image of my own twisted mind. To cling to some hope, I’m watching the polls and hanging on to the idea that the Democratic party ...
The crowd hushed and seemed to part a little. A tall man with dark hair walked toward the door. That man was the infamous magician to whom the theater basically belonged, Charles Spellman. Charles was older, but still a very handsome man. I would describe him in a similar way that one...
There's no way I could ever wear the feathers of a Lakota chief respectfully. At a few months ago I was at a fancy party where I saw a white guy wearing (what I think was) hanbok, with an Asian woman similarly dressed. Maybe that's cool, maybe not. I could probably wear a Mao...