WRITE ON: Secrets to Crafting Better Stories

by Kathy Flann

STAY THIRSTY PRESS PROUDLY WRITE ON. Does your story refuse to begin, refuse to end, or refuse to fulfill its potential? WRITE ON provides guidance for rethinking your approach to writing fiction and nonfiction. With decades of experience teaching at the college level and at over 35 writing conferences, award-winning author Kathy Flann provides illuminating insights and suggestions that every new writer needs, with topics Characters Reign Supreme; The Ticking Clock; Suspense vs. Confusion; Moments That Communicate Real Emotion; The Craft of Dialogue; Betraying the Reader; Importance of Voice in Memoir; and, Should Writers Teach.
Perfect for those seeking to become successful, published authors.
Kathy Flann’s first short story collection, Smoky Ordinary , won the Serena McDonald Kennedy Award and was published by Snake Nation Press. A second collection, Get a Grip , received the George Garrett Fiction Prize and was published by Texas Review Press. Get a Grip won the short story category of The Best Book Awards, The International Book Award, and the National Indie Excellence Award.
Her short stories have appeared in more than 25 journals and anthologies, such as Shenandoah , The North American Review , Blackbird , The Michigan Quarterly Review , and New Stories from the South . A new humor book is forthcoming in 2021 from Running Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.
For five years, Flann served as a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader of creative writing at the University of Cumbria in England. During that time, she also created mini-courses for the BBC's Get Writing website and served on the board of the National Association of Writers in Education. After a move to Baltimore, Maryland, she taught creative writing at Goucher College for many years and later at Johns Hopkins University.
Flann has taught at writing conferences, and she has given around 40 readings of her own work at bookstores and festivals in just the past few years. Her advice column for aspiring writers appears regularly in Stay Thirsty Magazine . In addition, she wrote a column about teaching writing for the UK’s Writing in Education for many years.
She’s been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sozopol Fiction Seminars in Bulgaria, and Le Moulin a Nef in France, and she has received grants from the Maryland Arts Council and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts.

Kindle Edition

Published August 22, 2020

About the author

Kathy Flann's stories and essays have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, The North American Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, and other publications. A short story collection, Smoky Ordinary, won the Serena McDonald Kennedy Award and was published by Snake Nation Press. A collection of short stories, Get a Grip, was recipient of the George Garrett Fiction Prize, and was published by Texas Review Press. She is also the author of Write On: Secrets to Crafting Better Stories.

For five years, Flann taught creative writing at the University of Cumbria in England, where she created mini-courses for the BBC's Get Writing website and served on the board of the National Association of Writers in Education.

She's been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sozopol Fiction Seminars in Bulgaria, and Le Moulin a Nef in France. She has received grants from the Maryland Arts Council and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, and also received a Baker Artist Award for the Literary Arts.

She loves dogs.

Reviews

[Jen Michalski · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a wealth of books about crafting stories. Almost too much, sometimes, and it can feel particularly overwhelming to the beginner (and often even the not-so beginner). Kathy Flann's "Write On" is a conversational, accessible collection of essays on character, time management, suspense, and loads of other gems that feels more like a friendly conversation over coffee than a didactic lecture. Flann is able, in a gentle and humorous way, to reduce big concepts into small bites that writers can later expand on as their own skills grow. (Note--I'm so glad I'm not the only one who gets confused over what is "show" and what is "tell.") No matter what stage you are in your career, Flann knows her stuff, and, like a sneaky teacher, she presents it a way that's hilarious but also helpful. Consider this gem: "what makes the introduction of a magical deity in a crotch harness unsatisfying?"

[Alicia Fenney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kathy Flann's "Write On" is a fun, quick read with applicable takeaways for new writers. Written from her vast experience in the writing universe, Flann's former blog entries collected in bound form offer "critical tips" in a snappy and funny way. While Janet Burroway's classic in the same genre (Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft) will offer reams of classic examples, Flann's are wholly original and engaging (so much so that I find myself chuckling as I remember the office in space, the boss having just decided to shut off the air supply as the "I hate Mondays" mug floats by and the co-worker with asthma has an episode...). This is not to say that Flann hasn't also quoted and drawn from the knowledge-base of Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Robert Olen Butler, and even psychiatrist William Glasser. Her experience as a published writer of articles and short stories; international experience as writer and educator; professor at Johns Hopkins and other reputable institutions; critical reader for publication; and presenter at workshops across the nation, give her firm credibility in the business of writing and publishing. Nor is this to say that new writers shouldn't also read Burroway's text. Burroway delves deep into the basics of story; Flann gives writers readily applicable one line pieces of advice that will get them out of a jam. On page one, do you answer: "Why today?" "What's at stake?" By the middle of the story, can you still confirm "Whose story is this?" I hope Flann's "Write On" makes its way onto university reading lists soon; they need it!

[NewPages]

I teach writing in an MFA program and have recently begun using Kathy Flann’s book WRITE ON: Secrets to Crafting Better Stories in the classroom. I appreciate the readable humor, relatability, and stealthy brilliance of her advice. Flann’s creative observations and essential recommendations make writing a strong, authentic narrative more achievable—sooner.

Guest Post by Betsy Boyd.

Read the full review at our blog.

[Michelle Tokarczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Writing

Write On is an essential book for novice writers and a valuable one for more experienced writers. In a humorous, friendly tone, Flann explains how to recognize and correct common problems. Keep the reader reading. Grab editors on the first page. After reading this book, writers will never compose manuscripts in the same way.