Craft as Distraction, Craft as Progress
Let me tell you a confession: I’m an inveterate procrastinator. I’m (sometimes) apt to not finish things, especially my own writing projects. It can be a problem. Mainly, I get hung up on the cohesiveness of my essay or book-length memoir. Here are the voices that stop me in my tracks:
“What am I trying to say?”
“How on earth will I structure this?”
“Does this work at all?”
“Who cares?”
All of these haunting, spectral moans and groans — Eeethan … Don’t continue …. Why bother? …. can prevent me from making progress and scare me away from my desk. What I often forget is that the solutions to the big picture problems will recede into the dust if I focus fully on the craft. If I’m stuck on the big picture, I can still make progress on the little stuff.
By “little stuff” I don’t mean “not important stuff.” I mean, endeavoring to write a good scene, or to amp up my use of reflection, or to experiment with structure, or to find a new voice to tell my story. Whether it’s a novel, short story, personal essay or TBD length CNF project, sometimes, I can assuage and even defeat those destructive voices by actually focusing on these smaller elements of craft.
If I’m unable to construct the hulking architecture of my book, I can still focus on crafting an effective, dramatic, turning point moment in my narrative, in a slowed-down, up-close way—one that showcases one of my protagonist’s most charged emotional moments. A scene.
If I can’t figure out the character arc of my entire novel, I can still get better at revealing the interiority of one character, at one single low-point on their emotional trajectory. What their internal emotional landscape and “making sense” voice sounds like.
If I’m bored with the sounds and patterns of my words on the page—which might feel plodding, or dull, or whiny, or holding something back—I can fiddle with the knobs on my own voice box and try another channel. I can play with syntax, sentence length, rhythms and pattern.
If I'm daunted by the idea of the chapter-to-chapter progression of my story and how it maintains narrative tension, I can still play with inventive forms — a braid, a parallel structure, a borrowed form, or crossing cutting between storylines — on a smaller scale.
Zeroing in on the little things can distract us from solving the big things and may end up actually solving bigger challenges in our manuscripts.
And, as a reminder, there’s a reason we call writting a “craft” and not only “art”: because I believe these are skills that can be taught, practiced, and mastered.
I’m offering a four-part online session, called Summer Seminar Series: Writing Craft with Ethan Gilsdorf.
Over 2 hours, we will explore the fundamentals of an essential craft element. These seminars include discussion of examples and time for in-class writing exercises to try out what you’ve learned. For all levels of writers. Online via Zoom. $75 each or → BEST DEAL: Summer Seminar Series Four Pack: Sign up for all 4 for $200. Register.
The Art of the Scene in Nonfiction and Fiction
Wed July 1, 6:30-8:30pm ET, $75
Whether you're writing memoir, fiction, essays, or narrative nonfiction—great scenes are the backbone of unforgettable storytelling. In this live seminar, you'll learn how to:
-Build tension that keeps readers hooked
-Create scenes with clear stakes, conflict, and character arcs
-Use screenwriting techniques to bring cinematic power to the page
-Add depth and interiority while grounding your writing in truth
We'll break down examples from writers like Cheryl Strayed, Stephen King, Michelle Kuo, and more to learn exactly how master storytellers do it—and how you can too. Register.Experimental Forms in CNF/Essay/Memoir
Wed July 8, 6:30-8:30pm ET, $75
We’ll examine the myriad forms of the experimental personal narrative—such as lyric forms, research braids, flash, micro-essays, and hermit crab forms—to discover unexpected ways to tell epersonal stories. We'll examine work by Ira Sukrungruang, Neema Avashia, Brian Doyle, Gwendolyn Wallace, Roxane Gay, Brenda Miller, and Sabrina Imbler for inspiration. Register.Using Interiority and Reflection in Nonfiction and Fiction
Wed July 22, 6:30-8:30pm ET, $75
Your audience wants to know what is going on in the minds of your characters. This state-of-mind, state of heart consciousness —both “interiority” and “reflective voice” —can happen in the middle of a scene, or a narrator looking back on events. Smart use of interiority and reflection, from the benefit of distance and passed time, gives your narrative that “so what?” We will look at examples of interiority and retrospection from writers such as Michelle Kuo, Zadie Smith, Calvin Hennick and Cheryl Strayed. Register.Playing with Style and Voice
Wed July 29, 6:30-8:30pm ET, $75
Do you feel as though your writing lacks a certain distinctive flavor? Do you struggle to find your “voice”? In this seminar, we’ll explore how to create a distinctive and engaging writing personality on the page, a unique persona for the writer, and a clear perspective on your story—sober, comic, sarcastic, in relation to the your story, by examing word choice, diction, syntax, sentence variety, figurative language and tone. Register.
I gave my stepmother a hard time as a kid. Now I can’t imagine life without her
My essay for WBUR’s Cognoscenti: “I gave my stepmother a hard time as a kid. Now I can’t imagine life without her.”
What’s the MDQ?
In my essay for the GrubStreet blog, I ask the question, “What’s the MDQ? Focusing on the Main Dramatic Question in the Essay Incubator.” May this help you understand the beating heart of your essay.
‘Rocky Horror’ at 50
My essay "50 years on, 'Rocky Horror' is still for us freaks and geeks" appears in WBUR/NPR's Cognoscenti.
How They Did It: Scene Creation in Lee Martin’s “Bastards”
An essay for the Brevity Blog: “Scenes are integral to the craft of writing: moments where the reader is immersed in a particular setting or place, dramatic things are happening, characters are interacting, and big things are changing.” Read more.
Students take a page from bestselling authors
I was featured in the news story “Students take a page from bestselling authors: All-Day Audible with Authors returns to Portsmouth Middle School,” published by the EastBayRI/Portsmouth Times (Rhode Island).
The Wisdom of My Three-Legged Pooch
An essay about my dog Wrigley, for the Boston Globe Magazine.
How Dungeons & Dragons Taught Me How To Be Brave In The Real World
This tabletop role-playing game is changing more lives than ever. It could change yours, too. My essay for the Huffington Post.
Cognoscenti's best stories of 2024
Over on WBUR’s Cognoscenti, my “Q&A with a Dungeon Master” (that’s me) with editor Kate Neale Cooper (and my accompanying essay “D&D turns 50 this year. Gather round the Dungeon Master's table”) was named to“Cognoscenti's best stories of 2024” list.
Plastic Water Bottle: Origin Story
An essay in Witness magazine. An excerpt: “This morning, flattened like roadkill in front of my house, post-trash and recycling pickup day, its plastic sleeve displaying the logo and “best by” and “bottled on” date long since stripped and taken by the wind, the 8 a.m. sunshine catching one of its crumpled diamond facets refracting the light back to me, not unbeautiful for a Monday.”
Choiceology podcast: A Hero's Journey
I appeared on the Choiceology podcast, “A Hero’s Journey,” in which I discuss how stories about the call to adventure and tests of character and strengths can make your life more manageable, exciting, and meaningful. Download here or on Apple Podcasts.
Q&A with a Dungeon Master
WBUR interviewed me about my lifelong interest in D&D, and why D&D still matters:
”For me, the win is if we've had a really fun time together. We've amused ourselves, we've had some emotional, exciting moments. Along the way, we’ve made these little sparks of connection. We've done something that has stakes and has meaning. Those are D&D’s wins. Your goal is to work together to solve a problem, not defeat each other — a totally different game experience. We've had some laughs, we've told a really interesting story. That’s a pretty great metaphor for life, too.” Read the interview here.
D&D turns 50 this year. Gather round the Dungeon Master's table
My essay for WBUR on the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. “On a personal level, D&D and other tabletop role-playing games offered me a template to create my own fantasies, my own narratives that starred a version of me that was less nerdy and more aggressive, less timid and more adventurous, less self-conscious and more carefree.” Read the rest of my essay here.
My Super 8 movie hits D&D Direct
D&D Direct is the annual video marketing blitz for new D&D merch roll-out. This 50th anniversary year, the livestream used clips from my Super 8 movie of my 1981 D&D session in its opening few minutes. Does this mean I hit the big time, Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast?
