When you write, what are you really writing about? It’s the age-old question, and one that Nicole Catarino explores in an interview with LRR’s own fiction editor, Eileen Sholomicky
Tag: Creativity
Blurring Boundaries: Challenging Our Compulsion To Categorize Writing
Emerging writers often struggle with the urge to make their writing fit an ambiguous mold of perfection. Luckily, Jess Gallagher has advice…
Why I now have all the free time to write, yet I don’t do it
By Ryan Amato Staying home all day, avoiding contact with others, having less obligations than usual: This is the writer’s dream. Or, at least, it should be. For some reason, the idea of sitting down to write something just hasn’t crossed my mind, despite having nothing but free time to…
Art Prevails in Quarantine, Even in the Smallest Acts
By Brenna Sarantides The day that UConn closed campus and moved to online classes, I told myself I would have a lot to show for all my free time. I’d read a few books a week. I’d finally start writing the novel I’ve been story-boarding. I’d finish a large canvas…
What makes a story “next”?
By Kathryn O’Donnell Our mission at Long River this issue was to find and publish pieces that are next, not now. “Next” shouldn’t be reserved solely for ideas that have never been discussed before. “Next” could be looking at a story that’s already been told from a new perspective. The…
Musings of a Curious Newbie By: Breanna Patterson
I’m an amateur writer. I’ve clawed out my own precious corner of my school’s Creative Writing Program and it is in this space that I am continuously attempting to prove myself. That’s the issue with writers: we sit in front of our keyboards, we psychoanalyze our own characters, and we…
Fanfiction: Try It—No Wait, Hear Me Out! by Diana Koehm
I know what you’re thinking. Fanfiction. Aka poorly written smut by hormonal preteens. As a true lover of literature, I have no patience whatsoever for ill-written work. However, I refuse to condemn an entire community of writers based on the reputations of a few. If there’s anything I’ve learned by…
Stay Creative This Spring Break by Emily Cantor
“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London It’s been a long winter of below-freezing temperatures, snow, and that signature Storrs wind that we all love to hate. But Spring Break is approaching quickly and it’s bringing exactly the kind of…
To Prompt, or Not to Prompt, That is the Question by Theresa Kurzawa
It’s the kind of question you ask yourself, as a writer, when you’re stuck on what to write about. Should you venture into the dangerous and confusing world of Writing Prompts, or should you leave your writing decisions to your own imagination? There are a lot of pros and cons…
The Devaluation of Creativity
In my long experience on the receiving end of the education system, I have found that there is a significant part of our culture that devalues creativity, especially the fields of Liberal Arts and Fine Arts. In my four years of college as an English and Psychology major, I have…