Author Archives: Samuel Snoek-Brown

Quantity vs. Quality: the purpose of NaNoWriMo

Recently, I got an e-mail from my dad in which he asked a question about the NaNoWriMo word counts. “Didn’t want to ‘disrespect’ your writing thing,” he wrote, “but do want to know….. what’s the point of how many words? In my way of thinking the objective is to get across the point or storyContinue reading “Quantity vs. Quality: the purpose of NaNoWriMo”

A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo update #1

Today, I am five days into NaNoWriMo.  My current official word count (not counting the writing I’ve already done today) is 13,666 words, with an average of 3,416.5 words per day.  This is a pretty frenetic pace, really, and I don’t expect to keep it up throughout the month (yesterday, for example, I actually wroteContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo update #1”

Songs for NaNoWriMo

As I’ve written elsewhere, I often use music to write.  Sometimes it’s about setting the mood, sometimes it’s just about filling the silence, but sometimes, especially on long works like a novel, it’s also about structuring my thoughts.  For both my dissertation novel and the novel I’m writing now for NaNoWriMo, I use a full-blownContinue reading “Songs for NaNoWriMo”

Photo blog 28

“Balloon face.”  Mask on red balloon in decorative reeds.  Abu Dhabi, UAE, 31 October 2010. I’m a few days into NaNoWriMo by now, and I’m working on characters.  So far, my favorite is probably the seductive but cold (and ultimately evil) Portia Lynn, whose stone-white face and emotional distance this mask makes me think of. Continue reading “Photo blog 28”

Some tips for new WriMos

I was browsing my Middle East Regional forum over at the NaNoWriMo website today and found a post thread that I imagine is showing up on everyone’s discussion forums: tips for first-time WriMos (a “WriMo” is someone participating in NaNoWriMo, though to be honest, I’m not a fan of the term). The first question, unsurprisingly,Continue reading “Some tips for new WriMos”

A Writer’s Notebook: Found poem (from Nizar Qabbani)

I’m in Dubai this weekend, visiting friends.  Yesterday, I spent part of my day on the Dubai campus of Zayed University, where, in a hallway leading to the campus library, I found a row of large, framed prints, each bearing–in Arabic and in English–lines of poetry. The lines all come from existing poetry, but theyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Found poem (from Nizar Qabbani)”

“Humanities in higher education is under attack.”

Pursuant to last Thursday’s post about Peter Thiel’s plan to destroy higher education, I offer this:  simultaneously the funniest and the most depressing commentary on academia I’ve seen in ages. Xtranormal | Text-to-Movie So you Want to Get a PhD in the Humanities , posted with vodpod This video might, in fact, look familiar, becauseContinue reading ““Humanities in higher education is under attack.””

A Writer’s Notebook: My nephew’s assignment

Yesterday, my sister sent me an e-mail which contained a story my nephew Aidan had written.  His story was about a string, and it reminded me of my own string story, which I began to write for my nephew.  And then–because Aidan’s story was a school writing assignment–I realized this would make an excellent Writer’sContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: My nephew’s assignment”