Today’s exercise is in response to a 19th-century personal ad (you can read the ad and the blog entry about it here). For the exercise, see below. Matrimonial. – A young lady of prepossessing appearance, fascinating manners and romantic sentiments desires to open a correspondence with a gentleman with a view to matrimony. He mustContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Personal ads”
Category Archives: writing
Patrons of writing and teaching: My grandfather, Ted Snoek
Ordinarily, I reserve the “patrons” entries for divine and/or fictional influences on my writing and teaching. But today I want to write about a real, living person, because today is my grandfather’s 90th birthday. My grandfather, Ted Snoek, has had a profound influence on my professional life. His father died fairly young, when my grandfatherContinue reading “Patrons of writing and teaching: My grandfather, Ted Snoek”
A Writer’s Notebook: Likes and Dislikes
Still working on the character of Ford. This week, his likes and dislikes, which I’ll explain below. Ford likes the sound of cicadas in the summertime, the whirring from afternoon till dusk. He likes the heat, and the cicadas’ song always brings it. Ford likes old pick-ups, the big boxy kind from the `50s, theContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Likes and Dislikes”
Music & Literature Part I: Experimentation
a guest blog by Ryan Werner A while back, I wrote a post about how music influences my writing, which led to not one but two Writer’s Notebook exercises about writing from music. But I said in that initial post that my relationship with music is purely as a listener–I don’t have any experience withContinue reading “Music & Literature Part I: Experimentation”
A Writer’s Notebook: Character interview
For a short set-up, I’ll reveal only that I’m currently thinking about—but not yet working on—a story about a character who is very difficult for me to understand, for reasons which will be apparent in the exercise itself. So this week, I decided to get to know him a little better by interviewing that character,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Character interview”
How to know when the writing is done
I started writing about good writing yesterday simply because it was on my mind — I’m neck-deep in three different stories right now, with two more on the sidelines, as I try to finish a story collection. But as soon as I posted it, I started thinking of a related discussion: How to know whenContinue reading “How to know when the writing is done”
How to know when the writing is good (or good enough)
When I was in grad school working on my doctorate, I took a class on the form and theory of poetry, with poet Bruce Bond. It was a fascinating course that taught me a lot, not only about poetry but also about my own approach to fiction. Bond has a way of asking provocative questionsContinue reading “How to know when the writing is good (or good enough)”
A Writer’s Notebook: Music and flash fiction
In the wake of last week’s Writer’s Notebook, my friend Ryan Werner sent me an e-mail with a challenge: Do it again. And this time, make it complete — in other words, write a piece of flash fiction. The actual exercise was more complicated than that (as usual, I’ll explain it below), but it wasContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Music and flash fiction”
Patrons of writing and teaching: Winnie-the-Pooh
I haven’t done a Patron of Writing in a while now, and with all the hard writing work I have ahead of me this week, I figured it was time to bring out Pooh-Bear. I’ve loved Winnie-the-Pooh since I was an infant (I still have my Pooh-Bear, faded and misshapen after all these years; myContinue reading “Patrons of writing and teaching: Winnie-the-Pooh”
A Writer’s Notebook: Music and freewriting
I’ll explain the exercise more fully below, but, as I did with the “1,000 words” exercise, I need to mention this up front: I’m writing while listening to Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46: Aase’s Death.” I can’t upload an audio clip of the piece without violating copyright, but you can hearContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Music and freewriting”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 