1 The Open Boat

The goal of the pod is to study a given text and use it to improve my writing, your writing, everyone’s writing.

In this episode, we look at Stephen Crane’s story “The Open Boat,” which you can find online here as it’s public domain. You don’t have to read it first, but you’ll get a lot more out of this if you do. Also it’s extremely good.

This week I dig into a stalled novel draft that’s been driving me crazy. It doesn’t even have a good title, that’s how much of a problem it’s been for me.

Previous/potential title: Forty Days and Forty Nights, because it’s about the first six weeks of college and how much hell that is for this particular character, a former foster kid with major trust issues. Maybe I’ll stick with it. It’s kind of too Biblical though. I’m conflicted in so many ways about this draft.

I also get into the methods I learned for how to tackle a messy first draft of a novel and rewrite it before you even get to the editing and proofreading process. Big picture!

Sacred cheese of life!