Author Archives: Samuel Snoek-Brown

A Writer’s Notebook: Found dialogue

The following conversation is not one I invented. I made up the characters and the situation, but the dialogue already existed. But I’ll explain below. Jacob smiled and leaned across the table. “It’s terribly funny,” he said. He winked. Sebastian shook his head. “You are pulling my leg.” Jacob only grinned. “You exaggerate!” Sebastian said. “SurelyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Found dialogue”

A Writer’s Notebook: A blank page

I spent part of this week in the hospital for a bleeding ulcer.  Nothing life-threatening, but it did threaten to interfere with our travel plans.  The good news is that it didn’t, and today, I am traveling.  But those two things combined–the ulcer and the travel–have left me with a blank page for this week’sContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: A blank page”

Photo blog 11

This is not a spectacular photo, I know, but I wanted to post it in honor of the 75th birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama (6 July).  While he is not formally my teacher, I have received teachings from him, including teachings on Tara (the female bodhisattva of compassion, whose Chinese name isContinue reading “Photo blog 11”

A Writer’s Notebook: Character details

This story I’m writing about the character named Ford is ballooning, but in the best way–each week I find new ways to build it, expand it, let it breathe. But more on that below.  Right now, five quick questions to help flesh out the character of Ford: a) What are the character’s physical attributes, fromContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Character details”

99 literary agents on the wall….

99 literary agents!…. Come on, sing it with me now! Over the past several months, I’ve become a big fan of the blog Literary Rejections on Display, partly because the rejections all look so familiar (it’s nice to know we’re not alone in the long, good fight to share great literature, isn’t it?) but alsoContinue reading “99 literary agents on the wall….”

A Writer’s Notebook: Descriptive outlines

Recently, I had the idea to write a new short story in a particular style, a genre I have practiced before but a long time ago. I’m out of practice. So I dug up some old examples and some new ones, and I started analyzing them for clues as to how to proceed. And thenContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Descriptive outlines”