This hits the proverbial nail on the head.
A little Christmas story
When I entered the USC Master’s of Writing program, I’d never written a short story. I’d always worked on novels. I had the opportunity to take a class with the wonderful Shelley Berman (he’s an amazing comedian and you may know him best for playing Larry David’s dad on Curb Your Enthusiasm). That’s when I — Read More
Who agrees?
Saw this today at Skylight Books. I was with one of my best friends, who is also an avid reader. We both just nodded.
To outline, or not to outline
When people ask me my favorite book of all time, I struggle with naming just one. I provide a list, and Slaughterhouse-Five is always on that list. This past weekend, I organized my book shelf, as I tend to do when I have a stretch of free time and am trying to avoid Swiffering my — Read More
ePublishing Success Story: Stephanie Walker
I met Stephanie Walker before she became Stephanie Walker. She was Stephanie Weinert, engaged to Bob Walker. We were both in the USC Master’s of Professional Writing program, struggling to keep up with deadlines, churning out plays, short stories, novel ideas. She was also planning a wedding. Over a year or two, I became good — Read More
For those uninspired days…
I see this as a more violent take on the phrase, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Confessions of an unpublished novelist
Sometimes I think it would be liberating if all my old manuscript pages went up in flames. When I say, “I’m researching,” it’s just code for, “I’m not writing.” I go months “researching.” There are moments when my characters totally perplex me. Those moments are terrifying. If I want to bail on a social event, — Read More
Why do we write?
I’ve asked myself this question often, sometimes with a tone of calm curiosity, sometimes with absolute frustration. What I come back to time and time again is this: I just enjoy writing. When I was a kid, this basic fact was complicated by another fact: I was good at writing. With that came well-meaning people — Read More
Quote of the month
When I was young (like, elementary school), I spent an almost-outrageous amount of time on character development when I wrote stories. I drew pictures of what I thought the character looked like, ripped images out of magazines that reminded me of her, made lists of her favorites (food, color, TV show, band). I sketched her — Read More
What you need to know (but nobody tells you when you’re starting out)
Ira Glass, as you probably know, is the host and producer of This American Life, a weekly public radio show broadcast on more than 500 stations to about 1.7 million listeners. Ira Glass is a master storyteller, plain and simple, and he has this to say to beginning storytellers: Check out the 4-part series with — Read More