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

Write for Bookfox

Bookfox seeks freelance writers to help fiction authors. 

You will write blog posts with advice about the writing life or craft of writing.

Your Background

You don’t need all these qualifications, but a good handful of them will help.

  • Have taught creative writing at the university level
  • Literary background, but not afraid of genre/popular fiction
  • Have published at least one book with a traditional publisher
  • MFA preferred.
  • Experience in the publishing industry

Necessary Skills

  • Enormous library of fiction and books about creative writing (capable of offline research)
  • Quick researcher
  • Able to research current online articles and find gaps in what they provide to writers 
  • Capable of innovative ideas, not just rehashing old ideas about writing
  • Educated yet colloquial voice, comfortable mixing high and low diction, and formal and informal language. Voice must be non-academic and non-stuffy.
  • Talented at writing for online media (completely different than writing for print).

Bonus Skills

  • Know WordPress
  • Graphics skills with Canva or Adobe InDesign

Your Mission

To write substantial articles on the craft of fiction writing or writing life

  • Plotting, characterization, dialogue, POV, voice, sentences, etc.
  • To create a bank of articles for upmarket fiction writers: writers who love fast pacing and fun plots, but pay attention to deep characterization and sentences
  • To provide creative writing advice that is more advanced than most elementary blog posts

Location:

  • Work from Anywhere

Tasks:

  • Research competition to find topics
  • Research blog posts
  • Write substantial and authoritative blog posts
  • Edit & Proofread content

To Apply:

  • One-page Resume
  • Link to one (1) blog post you’ve written (no need for more than one link)
  • One post you enjoyed on Bookfox
  • 3 Pitches for blog posts that you would like to write

Payment is $200 – $400 per post, depending on length and research. Posts range from 2,000 words to 4,000 words.

Submit Your Application: