Here’s a wonderful post, actually a follow-up post to Jill’s trials with her son and his school writing assignment.
Tag Archives: writing
Kudos for “The Sense of an Ending”
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (2011 Man Booker Prize winner) leads the reader through the murky passageways of memory, while musing about the nature of time and history.
The story opens with fragments of memories that, according to the narrator, are arranged “in no particular order” along with the caveat—“what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.” With this first paragraph, the book’s tenor is established.
Filed under What I'm Reading Right Now
VIDA
Male writers may feel uncomfortable (or not, if you’re V.S. Naipaul), women writers may want to–well, blow chunks. If you’ve never heard of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, you will know much about them after you click on the link.
The article speaks for itself. What do you think?
Filed under Rants
Gonna Take a Sentimental Journey–NOT!
I was just reading a fabulous post on the AboutAWord Web site. Keyed in to it by a friend, I’ve just discovered a treasure trove of intelligent writing on writing. One of the most recent posts, by Kevin Prufer, discusses sentimentality.
The kiss of death, we know it when we read it. Print bleeding past lavender and into violet. I learned to think about it as unearned emotion, but I now believe that’s too simplistic. Continue reading
Filed under Craft, Howling at the moon
Why study craft?
1) Madison Smartt Bell states in his book about structure, Narrative Design, that craft guides the unconscious “into harness,” similar to the way musicians study scales or sculptors study anatomy. Once craft becomes reflexive, the unconscious accesses this knowledge automatically, leaving the mind free to play, to create, to make the magic happen. Continue reading
What Are You Afraid Of?
“Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses…The only pain you [should (my insertion)] feel is for all the useless pain you felt, all the times you didn’t do something because of cowardice or fear, all the times you let the bastards and the kibitzers and the fear shrinkers hold you back. Watch out for the death people, do you see what I mean? They’re the ones to avoid.” Erica Jong
So there you have it–be fearless and multiply–with words, that is.
For more on ditching those excuses, check out: Quotes About Excuses
Filed under Howling at the moon
Dogpatch Writers Collective 