Author: stephen matlock

Writing Exercises

So Nancy Kress gave us a set of writing exercises. One: Write a scene using only dialog. It’s an argument … More

Model Garage

We will always need that sense of being connected and that sense of knowing that someone sees us, recognizes us, and finds us valuable.

Acts of Faith

Have you ever walked into a movie halfway and then spent the rest of the movie trying to figure out what it all means? It makes for a challenging viewing experience—you don’t really know the characters, and you have to guess why people do what they do

Losing Faith

Have you ever done all the right things, checked all the boxes, filled out all the forms, signed on the dotted line—and still experienced disaster?

Telling

Maybe it’s that we’re human, but we can all tell our story. Not all of us can tell it with the same degree of passion or generate the same level of interest, but we can usually describe an event and what it meant to us.

Sometimes the Good Guys Win

How come I can want to do the right thing and be, inside myself, a good person, but both the outside and the inside are broken? How can the universe display such beauty and at the same time such brutality?

The Right Book Is the Wrong Book

One of the best books I’ve read so far on writing has been one to say you’re probably a crummy writer and you should stay far away from the publishing world.

Beyond the Bars

I meet with a group of writers every Monday night, and we usually have a short-story competition: we get a … More

Snowboarder

Surfing the Avalanche

This week think about the ways you are avoiding help and change. Maybe you think you can do it alone, or maybe you think you must. I can’t convince you outright, I think, to step out. If you’re convinced of your own hopelessness, then what are my words going to do to change that? But if there’s the slightest hint of light, the weakest desire for change, I urge you to find a group who will love you unconditionally and support you without shame.