He got up and sat on the edge of the bedstead with his back to the window. “It’s better not to sleep at all,” he decided. There was a cold damp draught from the window, however; without getting up he drew the blanket over him and wrapped himself in it. He was not thinking of anything and did not want to think. But one image rose after another, incoherent scraps of thought without beginning or end passed through his mind. He sank into drowsiness. Perhaps the cold, or the dampness, or the dark, or the wind that howled under the window and tossed the trees roused a sort of persistent craving for the fantastic. He kept dwelling on images of flowers, he fancied a charming flower garden, a bright, warm, almost hot day, a holiday—Trinity day. A fine, sumptuous country cottage in the English taste overgrown with fragrant flowers, with flower beds going round the house; the porch, wreathed in climbers, was surrounded with beds of roses. A light, cool staircase, carpeted with rich rugs, was decorated with rare plants in china pots. He noticed particularly in the windows nosegays of tender, white, heavily fragrant narcissus bending over their bright, green, thick long stalks. He was reluctant to move away from them, but he went up the stairs and came into a large, high drawing-room and again everywhere—at the windows, the doors on to the balcony, and on the balcony itself—were flowers. The floors were strewn with freshly-cut fragrant hay, the windows were open, a fresh, cool, light air came into the room. The birds were chirruping under the window, and in the middle of the room, on a table covered with a white satin shroud, stood a coffin. The coffin was covered with white silk and edged with a thick white frill; wreaths of flowers surrounded it on all sides. Among the flowers lay a girl in a white muslin dress, with her arms crossed and pressed on her bosom, as though carved out of marble. But her loose fair hair was wet; there was a wreath of roses on her head. The stern and already rigid profile of her face looked as though chiselled of marble too, and the smile on her pale lips was full of an immense unchildish misery and sorrowful appeal. Svidrigaïlov knew that girl; there was no holy image, no burning candle beside the coffin; no sound of prayers: the girl had drowned herself. She was only fourteen, but her heart was broken. And she had destroyed herself, crushed by an insult that had appalled and amazed that childish soul, had smirched that angel purity with unmerited disgrace and torn from her a last scream of despair, unheeded and brutally disregarded, on a dark night in the cold and wet while the wind howled

The Blog

8 Ways to Write a Dream Sequence
- Novels
- Writing Techniques
It’s easy to hate dream sequences in a novel. I mean, how many bad dreams sequences have you read? I’ve read a ton, and that’s why for so long I was resistant to teach other writers how to use dreams, and refused to use them in my fiction. But after continuing to see dreams in […]
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10 Incredibly Written Sex Scenes in Books
- Writing Techniques
Articles about sex scenes in books usually fail in one of 3 ways. They often: The sex scenes below are literary fiction. But don’t run away! They’re really good sex and really good writing, and yes, those things can be combined. I’ll prove it to you. Just read the first couple of excerpts below and […]
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7 Ways to Write a Story Within a Story (Nested Stories)
- Novels
- Writing Techniques
A key part of writing a novel is figuring out the structure of your story. However, this structure might actually only be one layer of your novel. Complex plots often contain multiple layers of story. A shorter story contained inside a longer story or novel is called a story-within-a-story, an embedded story, or a nested […]
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7 Ways to Use Foreign Languages in Your Fiction
- Writing Techniques
One of the greatest strengths of novels is their ability to include the voices of a wide cast of characters. However, if these characters speak different languages from the one you are writing in, you end up with a dilemma: How do you handle other languages within your fiction? When writing multi-lingual scenes, you have […]
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How to Master Worldbuilding: A Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy
- Writing Techniques
From Lord of the Rings to Star Wars, across sci-fi and fantasy, good worldbuilding is what makes genre fiction stand out. Well-constructed worlds are legendary—they capture audience’s imaginations, and they make readers want to live in the story forever. What would Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series be without the Discworld itself? What would The Wizard of […]
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35+ Literary Devices Writers Should Use in their Next Book
- Writing Techniques
Literary devices aren’t something you learn in English class and then forget about for the rest of your life. They’re a beating, thumping heart of the fiction writer’s toolbox. If you don’t know these literary devices below, you’re probably using some of them already. But if you learn by reading the examples, you’ll be better […]
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The Best Tips for Collaborative Writing
- Writing Techniques
The first step to successful collaborative writing? Abandon the false idea that writers write better when they work alone. People usually think of writers as quiet and brooding loners who separate themselves from society in order to write. The solitary writer is imagined as an introvert, alone at the desk. But this fantasy of what […]
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Steamy yet Sophisticated: How to Write the Perfect Kissing Scene
- Writing Techniques
One of the most difficult scenes to write is a kissing scene, or really any scene when when things get hot and heavy. Writers worry about being too obscene (will my mother read this?), or even worse, not vulgar enough (no one wants to be labeled a prude). Humans are private creatures when it comes to lust, and […]
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8 Writing Techniques Inspired by Musicians
- Writing Techniques
Writers, if you’re stuck in a creative rut, maybe all you need is a jam session. Art is all about connection: to the world, to each other, and to other forms of art. We often forget this last aspect, and it’s time we started learning from each other and our many different approaches to creativity. […]
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