February 24, 2010 posted in..... writing exercises
Archive for February, 2010
Dialogue is one of the most important tools in your author’s skill box. Done well it will bring your characters to life and anchor your prose. It will subtly tell your story gracefully. Unfortunately, dialogue is one of the hardest aspects of fiction to pull off well. Maybe it’s because we think it should be easy–I mean we have conversations every single day, putting them down on paper seems second nature. Or maybe it’s just that we’re uncomfortable with dialogue because we’re not sure what its purpose is in our story–we know we should have dialogue, that it’s useful, but aren’t quite sure why. So we stick it in and hope it works.
Whatever the reason, you shouldn’t sweat it because with some practice dialogue will become your best friend. Here’s how
February 23, 2010 posted in..... what i'm reading
This week is a good one. I am reading a couple of books that are truly unique. The first is a wonderful first novel about race and family. The second is a challenging but profound look at how Zen Koans can be usefully applied in our every day lives.
“The Girl Who Fell From the Sky” is a new novel by Heidi W. Durrow and it won the prestigious Bellwether Prize for Fiction. Barbara Kingsolver calls it “A breathless telling of a tale we’ve never heard before. Haunting and lovely, pitch-perfect, this book could not be more timely.” Set in the 1980s, it explores biracial and bicultural identity with an honesty and subtlety that is both heart wrenching and deeply intimate. Durrow is the cofounder and coproducer of the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival, a graduate of Yale Law School and the Columbia University School of Journalism. She is currently on a tour for this book and lands in Denver at the Tattered Cover on March 11.
“Bring Me the Rhinoceros” by John Tarrant is a retelling of fourteen traditional Zen koans. Traditionally used to challenge belief and reach enlightenment, Tarrant is adept at using the koans to shed light on the modern predicament. Steven Mitchell calls it “one of the best books written on Zen” while I feel that it goes above and beyond any self-help book or psychology tome in explaining how to lead a life that is self actualized, content, and real. It is also one of those books that you can reread or pick up and learn something useful in just five minutes. Muscular, funny, and packed full of enlightening wonders, this book does not disappoint. It’s rocking my world write now.
February 23, 2010 posted in..... writing tips & tutorials
from takomabibelot
Ahhhh Discipline. Such a strong, steely word. One that so often conjures up images of deprivation, seriousness, or ‘gasp’ rules. I mean, Foucault even wrote a book on it, right? ‘Discipline and Punish’. Great book. Heavy book.
But the more I think about it, the more I believe that discipline shouldn’t be about all that, not for eating or exercise, and certainly not for writing. So what should it be about? CONTINUE READING…..
from paper cat
I love used book stores. There’s just something about the smell of dust and a thousand different homes and libraries all crammed into one small store, the particular silence, the sepia light, the anticipation of finding a treasure hidden amongst all the old backpacker guides to Estonia and beginning Spanish textbooks. (I found my first copy of Justine at a Goodwill in Portland. I had no idea what it was with its red cover sans dust jacket. Reading it was one of the great surprises of my life.)
Often, however, I come across old books that are truly amazing, useful not for reading, but for their sheer ‘beingness’. I once found a whole Jello cookbook from the 1970s, with recipes for meat Jello molds, and savory gelatin salads with olives. The glossy full page pictures were enough for me to pony up the $1.50 for the book. Then there was the Zulu phrasebook with the bright blue cover, the illustrated copy of Dante’s Inferno with the swirled Florentine cover I found at Powell’s that one time…. And while i love these books for just existing, I’ve always wished that I could ‘do’ something with them, something that would make them more than just the odd book that I get to show the poor sucker whom I lure into my library. Well, I did some hunting around and found some great ‘recipes’ for those awesome old books.
February 17, 2010 posted in..... writing exercises
Every Wednesday, I’m going to introduce a writing exercise that will help spur on your imagination. Whether you are a fiction writer in serious need of inspiration, or just someone who likes to dabble in creativity, these exercises are bound to be fun and educational. Today, I want to focus on the most important component of all well written fiction: Character.
