Librarian For Hire…No, Seriously, Hire Me!

My entire life, I've been raised on check lists. Go to school? Check! Get good grades? Check! Do your studying and stay out of trouble? Check! College? Check! Masters degree? Check! As a result of the checked checklist, I've been told I'm entitled to: the job I want, a house, a decent life. I am …

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The Emotional Writer: Writing Angry

When I was writing my capstone project, Seedling (seriously, check it out on the page), I was much too eager to write in all of my problematic relationships and using my main character as the funnel for some personal vendettas. No, really, I melted the face off one character who was loosely based off an …

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Drowning in the Shallows

I admire John's eager love for the beach, the ever churning ocean waves, and the recklessness of swimming to far out islands and buoys barely visible from the sandy shore. A wildness comes out in him at the beach, when the sun is high and hot, the water cold and rushing up past your shins. He's extremely playful like a Labrador set free in a dog packed dog park, but I was so timid and downright terrified when first standing in the damp, cool sand.

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Beautiful Destruction on Glory Road

The following short story was one I wrote back in high school. It won an honorable mention in a county-wide contest, which was remarkable enough to post my picture in the city paper. I was surprised because I honestly hated this story, loathed this character I created, and still do. But to this day, it's …

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“It Was a Creative Shut Up”

I was sitting in our senior capstone course under the direction of our program's director. It was the course to help guide us towards our capstone presentations to showcase either a research paper or creative project based upon our knowledge and showmanship of what we had gained at Oklahoma City University. It was an easy …

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What Does a Wayward Writer Write?

My life hasn't gone how I planned. Who can say differently, though? When I was a know-nothing kid, I thought that things would align easily. The teachers made it seem like things would, so long as you behaved and got good grades, though. Everything will just fall into place. So I made an age-marked goal …

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Simple Steps

Have you ever started plotting out a draft, story, dream journal and found yourself with too complex and heavy of an idea meshed with dozens of other ideas that make you go, "Man, this needs to be an entire series!" But then you start, and the idea of creating no only one book for a story idea but three, four, or even five and you're feeling heart palpitations every time you sit at the keyboard. That anxiety is unnecessary, and what is the rule for unnecessary items in a draft?