It’s a funny thing. When asked what one can do to become a better writer, established writers often offer two leading responses: 1) Read more. 2) Experience more. (outside of the ever-present “Write more.”) I appreciate the advice, but what does one do when one is a slow reader? Or a slow experiencer? I...
Read more →Back on December 30th of last year, I wrote about perhaps the biggest frustration I face as I try to live my life- and it is my regular fight with passivity. I stated then that I knew the problem with it I was having, and that I just needed to be more assertive with...
Read more →I have nothing today, so here is the voice of my enemy, which does well to drive me to waste excessive amounts of my time staring at a blank screen and toss me headlong me into abject frustration. 1. “I have nothing to say.” 2. “I hate these words.” 3. “That sounds idiotic.” 4....
Read more →For the writer, one of the greatest tools in Resistance’s toolbox is reticence, and its perpetual challenge to one’s vulnerability. Reticence is a fantastic tool for Resistance because it keeps the writer perpetually self-monitoring and questioning their work- and in many cases, by highlighting where a particular admission or proclamation or illustration might open...
Read more →I’m nearing the end of Hillerman’s memoir, and he has some good material on his life and experiences as an author. Now, his life as an author was heavily influenced not only by his adventures as a younger man, but also by his regimen as a journalist. Called consistently to report on issues related...
Read more →With the start of Labor Day weekend today, it was a good day to mix things up a bit. This morning, I visited the monthly meeting of an organization, and this afternoon, I went and saw a movie. Later this afternoon, the Cubs survived a slugfest with the Atlanta Braves to win 14-12, and...
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Tonight was the last night of the summer screenwriting class I took with Marc Calderwood through UNM Continuing Education, and like each of the others, it was educational and entertaining. After Marc took a little time to recap some of the big thoughts we were supposed to take away from the course, he then...
Read more →I started the day early this morning to try and get a little more research done on the Anza project. I was in the directory on my computer last night where I store notes from the book I’d been reading on the man, and I had four different documents there where notes from the...
Read more →Tonight I was going to write a short story about Svengard and his impetuous boss at the hardware store who asks him what kind of name that is- a Communist one? His boss was an idiot and a jerk, also know as an ijiot, but Svengard is kind to the good ole ijiot and...
Read more →Today I was reading a little about Hemingway because I read him heavily one year in college and loved his language-bending, and I was surprised to learn that he wrote a novella. It wasn’t the novella itself that surprised me, but rather, that he wrote a novella that was meant to be a parody...
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It’s been, for some reason, a tremendously slow reading year for me this year. It’s not because I don’t have books to read. I have a sizable stack of books just waiting to be read, and they are inviting tomes. I think its just been more that I’ve had a hard time making myself...
Read more →I regularly experience in my writing process that if, say, I tell myself I want to write a short story, I’ll have a quick clear thought about what it should be. In my head I see a character have an experience, and they are changed. BAM! There it is! The automatic short story is...
Read more →It’s a funny thing. You write because you want your thoughts and your ideas to be shared, to be enjoyed. You want to express your mental machinations and maybe share an insight or two on life and things going on in the world. And you create a platform- a blog- to do just that,...
Read more →Hearing this afternoon that Sports Illustrated had a new issue coming out soon with Cub’s phenom and NL MVP Kris Bryant on the cover, I visited the Barnes & Noble website to get the phone number to a store here in town in my sort-of neighborhood. I had to ask Jeff the Magazine Guy...
Read more →It’s Saturday morning, and I am out of creativity for this week, so for today’s post, it’s just “whatever” stuff this morning. I tried to be a little more creative in my writing exercises this week, and as with most of my writings, I wasn’t super thrilled with the results. I started another short...
Read more →Tonight was the second installment of the Writing Short Stories class with Robert Gish at the UNM CE campus on University. I wrote about Gish and week one here, and tonight continued to be more of the same, where “the same” is a whole stew of tips on writing and the sharing of definition...
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