Writing Exercises from Matt Bell
Subscribe
Sign in
Home
Archive
About
New
Top
Discussion
Exercise #31: How to Not Stop Saying the Thing You Shouldn't Say
Chris Bachelder, Robert Boswell, Nicola Griffith, Adrienne Celt, Eugene Marten, Arkady Martine.
Matt Bell
Jun 1
12
1
Share this post
Exercise #31: How to Not Stop Saying the Thing You Shouldn't Say
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #30: The Novel-Shaped Story II
Antoine Wilson, C.L. Clark, Jesse Ball, Blake Snyder, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jennifer Schuessler
Matt Bell
May 1
15
3
Share this post
Exercise #30: The Novel-Shaped Story II
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #29: The First-Person Plural
Ayşe Papatya Bucak, Seth Fried, Shirley Jackson, John Gardner, Isaac Butler, Solmaz Sharif, Melissa Febos.
Matt Bell
Apr 1
9
1
Share this post
Exercise #29: The First-Person Plural
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
REFUSE TO BE DONE Launch Day! / Exercise #28: Mapping the First Draft
Jane Alison, Matthew Salesses, Blake Snyder, Philip Gerard, Ann Leckie, Alix E. Harrow, N.K. Jemisin, David Mitchell, Lance Olsen, Mark Twain, Cormac…
Matt Bell
Mar 8
14
4
Share this post
REFUSE TO BE DONE Launch Day! / Exercise #28: Mapping the First Draft
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #27: Audience and Intent
Matthew Salesses, Claire Vaye Watkins, Octavia E. Butler, Jim Shepard, Sarah Blake, Jonathan Lethem.
Matt Bell
Mar 1
4
2
Share this post
Exercise #27: Audience and Intent
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #26: Not-Outlines for the Half-Known World
Robert Boswell, Rachel Yoder, Lauren Groff, Lincoln Michel, Cinderella, Game of Thrones, Jane Austen, Spider-Man, Miciah Bay Gault, Brian K. Vaughn…
Matt Bell
Feb 2
17
3
Share this post
Exercise #26: Not-Outlines for the Half-Known World
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #25: Seeking Joy in Superfluous Worldbuilding
Ursula K. Le Guin, Lincoln Michel, It's a Wonderful Life, Star Wars, Lauren Groff, Dana Spiotta, Rachel Yoder.
Matt Bell
Jan 1
11
1
Share this post
Exercise #25: Seeking Joy in Superfluous Worldbuilding
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #24: Édouard Levé's Stochastic "Plots"
Édouard Levé
Matt Bell
Dec 1, 2021
6
Share this post
Exercise #24: Édouard Levé's Stochastic Anti-Plots
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #23: Making Backstory Active by Avoiding Flashbacks and Info Dumps
Laird Hunt, Mike Meginnis, Alexandra Kleeman, Mary Gaitskill
Matt Bell
Nov 2, 2021
7
6
Share this post
Exercise #23: Activating Backstory with Dialogue Instead of Flashbacks and Info Dumps
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #22: The Set Piece Prologue as Scale Model
Don DeLillo, Marissa Levien, Fernando A. Flores, Jeff Tweedy, Anthony Doerr, Victor LaValle
Matt Bell
Oct 2, 2021
6
Share this post
Exercise #22: The Set Piece Prologue as Scale Model
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #21: How to Study Sentence Structure
Ursula K. Le Guin, Yan Ge, Lauren Redness, Carmen Maria Machado, Denis Johnson, Michael Faber, Louise Erdrich, Joan Didion
Matt Bell
Sep 1, 2021
2
3
Share this post
Exercise #21: How to Study Sentence Structure
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Exercise #20: Syntactic Symbolism
Virginia Tufte, Dawn Tripp, Mitchell S. Jackson, James Salter, Toni Morrison, Brian Evenson, Benjamin Percy, S.A. Cosby, Paisley Rekdal.
Matt Bell
Aug 1, 2021
5
2
Share this post
Exercise #20: Syntactic Symbolism
mattbell.substack.com
Copy link
Twitter
Facebook
Email
This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please
turn on JavaScript
or unblock scripts