I remember back when as a child, when I had strong impulses to write but not as much practical knowledge or exercise of the craft, I first noted that some people seemed to often come back to the same ideas or even tropes in their stories again and again, particularly as their bodies of work... Continue Reading →
On art snobbery
I like to say I try not to be an art snob. I'm sure people have laughed at me for that, as unfortunately I have a problem with coming off as snobby in life in general. But what I mean by that is that I try to judge art by its own merits, rather than... Continue Reading →
Counting my fan chickens before they’re hatched
I want to journal again. I hate that I've written so little recently, and I want to get back to my previous five or so times a week. And not just about my writing, though I want to talk a lot about that. I want to get my life and my thoughts back in here.... Continue Reading →
Two fans, these opinions
In my rare free moments in the last few weeks, I've been checking out TV Tropes. It's a really addictive website, easy to get lost on, but I always find myself most drawn to reading not the pages about in-story tropes, but rather the ones about the creative process. I've always been fascinated by process,... Continue Reading →
A moving and humbling message
So this weekend has been full of surprises for me. I will speak about each on them in turn soon, but I've been meaning to post about this since I got it the other day, so I'll start with that. I got a message in the inbox of my Tumblr. I was confused at first... Continue Reading →
Sex in my writing
I don’t write about sex much. I don’t know if those of you who have read much of my work have noticed that, but I tend not to deal with it very often. To be frank, I think there’s something approaching a prudishness in a lot of my writing— not a lot of exploration of... Continue Reading →
Strengths and weaknesses as a writer
It’s residency week for my grad school, and as alums are allowed to attend certain seminars, I’ve been back a bit. I also wanted to be there to hear the readings of some of my colleagues’ plays. I was particularly struck this time around by “The Deep Purple,” by Andy Landis, because even without any... Continue Reading →
The eulogy I gave for my mother
I could talk for ages about the woman who was my mother. Things you probably already know. Her kindness, her grace, her intelligence, her talents. I could go on forever. But standing up here now at her memorial, you know what I can’t get out of my head? This isn’t fair. We shouldn’t have to... Continue Reading →
I write about babies a lot
I remember when I ran the plot of my latest full-length play by Morethings5. His response was, "That's such a Phoebe story." And the reason for that was that it prominently dealt with issues around babies. I write a lot of things that have babies in them. Pregnancies, new babies, lost babies. Babies that change... Continue Reading →
