I thought I’d try my hand at some non-fiction this week, though I confess this is not my forte. For the reason I’ve engaged this genre–and, as always, for the exercise itself–see below. I come from a line of seamen. My father, and my father’s father, and my father’s father’s father-in-law, all were captains ofContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: The salty but true story of the origins of one Capt. Ted Snoek”
Category Archives: character
A Writer’s Notebook: 1,000 words
This exercise calls for writing from a photograph. This is the photo I used (click on the photo to go directly to the photo series that includes this pic): For a description of the exercise, see below. But first, what I wrote…. It was sunny but cool that Sunday afternoon when we drove out toContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: 1,000 words”
A Writer’s Notebook: Outrunning the Critic
This comes from Brian Kiteley‘s The 3 A.M. Epiphany, some exercises from which appear on his University of Denver web page. For the exercise (which I copied and pasted below), click here. Sharon works as a bookkeeper for a senior center on the backside of town. Sharon knows her husband is distracted, knows he lovedContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Outrunning the Critic”
Compassion in action
My friend Lori Ann Bloomfield, over on her blog First Line, has posted an excellent comment on how writers can help not only Haitians but all human beings, simply through the act of writing. By writing more human characters, she says, we come to understand our fellow human beings better, and it’s a very smallContinue reading “Compassion in action”
Research tip #6: Marbling
For more on researching for fiction, go to the main research page. So now you have all your research done and you’re ready to get back to the writing. But you’re writing fiction here, not a research paper—so how do you use this research you’ve done? Sometimes the answer is easy: you were looking forContinue reading “Research tip #6: Marbling”
Research tip #5: Shop the catalogue
For more on researching for fiction, go to the main research page. I’ve written about this before, but just to recap: Tom Franklin hates doing research. Yet his first two novels were historical fiction, which stuck Franklin doing the very thing he hates. Still, Franklin prefers to focus on the writing, to let the fictionContinue reading “Research tip #5: Shop the catalogue”
Is there anybody out there? Sensory deprivation and creative writing
I’m currently (and rapidly) revising my second novel, which also served at my dissertation and which is set in an afterlife, with a dead narrator and a whole mess of dead characters. The harderst part, I think, is the opening, the first third of the book, because at heart the novel is a roadtrip adventureContinue reading “Is there anybody out there? Sensory deprivation and creative writing”
Lost won; Fringe is frayed: a study of character vs. plot
Okay, lame title for a comparison of JJ Abrams series. For the past several weeks I’ve been embroiled in an on-and-off argument with a friend of mine. It relates to how we define quality writing and how we use the terms “literary” and “genre,” among other things. (I use “literary” in a positive way andContinue reading “Lost won; Fringe is frayed: a study of character vs. plot”
Spider-Man becomes Single-Man?
This semester, as we study pop culture and critical interaction with a “text” (really, any medium), I’m making my students write a series of short, informal response essays. And I figured, what’s good for the goose…. So, this is the “sample response” I’ve written for them, in all its shabby inglory: Last fall, I readContinue reading “Spider-Man becomes Single-Man?”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 