Apr 287 minWhat it Takes to Move a Reader to Tears Without Chopping Onions By Zoha Arif Kids, behold Master Sensei, the CEO and Founder of the Fortune 500 Onion Ninja Industries. Master Sensei has been prosperous in the inedible oni...
Apr 285 minAvoiding ClichésBy Daniel Boyko and Maya Nalawade Ignorance is bliss. Better safe than sorry. Play your cards right. A fish out of water. What do all of these have in common...
Apr 284 minQ&A - How important is understanding a piece's meaning to you? By Hannah Ramsey and Daniel Boyko Hannah Ramsey: I know that whenever I’m editing a submission, whether it be a very personal nonfiction narrative or a poem ...
Mar 266 minEditing a Famous Poem With Polyphony GuidelinesBy Zoha Arif I ate a popsicle today -- blue raspberry, thank you for asking -- on the school bus because I felt like it even though, in retrospect, it is a p...
Mar 74 minWriting Natural Dialogue By Daniel Boyko and Zoha Arif It is a universal consensus that writing dialogue is a trial—a detestation on its own—and one of those elements of writing that...
Jan 43 minWriting Creative NonfictionBy Sally Park and Nishka Dalmia (Nishka) ‘Creative non-fiction’ is a paradox in itself. While people tend to think that creative necessarily implies using of...
Oct 31, 20196 minEditing Fiction (For the Anxious Poet, the Lazy Editor, & People Who Happen to Be Both)For some editors, opening Submission Manager and seeing the genre listed as “fiction” strikes fear deep into their hearts. Maybe it’s because fiction pieces ...
Feb 1, 201910 minTeenage PhilosophizingBy Alex Jones and Adil Alvi Advice on avoiding condescension, getting in the reader’s head, and helping young thinkers produce their best-quality writing. Wh...
Jan 1, 20194 minWriting non-repetitive general commentaryAhh, the classics. Every genre has its own issues, its own tropes and cliches. Romance novels have meet-cutes, fantasy novels have doorways to the new world,...
Jan 1, 20196 minJustifying your commentaryPrior to the thrill of receiving their Submission Manager account and their very first submission, all Polyphony Lit editors undergo a brief application proc...
Dec 1, 20186 minEditing pieces that deal with difficult topicsAs editors and readers for Polyphony Lit, we know our primary duty is to help our own rising generation of literary artists feel supported and heard. We know...
Dec 1, 20185 minFeedback 101: Compassionate EditingHave you ever worried that you were being too harsh with your commentary? Three Polyphony editors are here to help. One of the most commonly voiced concerns ...
Dec 1, 20183 minIndependently improving your own editingIt’s a conundrum that all editors face at some point – how can you improve your editing skills when you don’t know what your strengths and weaknesses are? It...
Oct 11, 20184 minCracking the Enigma: Pieces You Don´t Understand by Ore Amosu A Polyphony editor's worst nightmare: not knowing what to comment. You know the feeling you have when you can’t open a stubborn jar of jam? You ...
Oct 5, 20184 minGot Writer's Block?by Anya Chabria, Emily Cho, Jodie Meng, Jennifer Wang, and Maggie Eames Even the best writers end up staring at the blank white page and blinking cursor. Our...
