In just a few days, National Novel Writing Month will begin. So of course I’m gearing up. I have a lot of explaining to do about what you’ll see on the “notebook page” below, but I don’t want to front-load all this. Better just to give you the list, and then I’ll explain everything below. ToContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo table of contents”
Category Archives: Writer's Notebook
Writer’s Notebook: Coffee story (with apologies to Orhan Pamuk)
This is not done. It’s probably not even good. But it’s been an interesting exercise. But I’ll explain more later. I can tell you only a little about the man and woman before they entered my shop. They both were new, you see, and so much of what I know about them I know onlyContinue reading “Writer’s Notebook: Coffee story (with apologies to Orhan Pamuk)”
Writer’s Notebook: Holiday story
I’m sort of semi-cheating this week. I am working on an exercise, but the story I’m working on will eventually show up online as a story, so I’d rather keep it under wraps while I work on it. Still, I want to offer something along the same lines here, so behold, a quick excerpt fromContinue reading “Writer’s Notebook: Holiday story”
Writer’s Notebook: a few thoughts on writing
This week, I have one of my classes writing about a personal belief. It’s going to lead them to a personal essay, so what I’m about to do is a pretty poor example of what they’re up to, but when I began thinking of topics I might tackle in order to write along with them,Continue reading “Writer’s Notebook: a few thoughts on writing”
Writer’s Notebook: a new beginning
I know. I missed last week’s Notebook and when you scroll down in a minute, you’re going to find a blank page. This is a good thing. See, I’ve landed a new teaching job and a tutoring gig, I’m working on a project for my Buddhist center, and I’m reading for Jersey Devil Press. PlusContinue reading “Writer’s Notebook: a new beginning”
A Writer’s Notebook: family history
This one rambles, but it’s an exercise and it’s rough, so bear with me. I used to read books. I mean on paper, pages made of wood pulp pressed flat in huge machines, cut and stitched or glued together and then cut again, printed with ink and bound in cardstock covers. When I turned theContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: family history”
A Writer’s Notebook: tarot story
Last week, riffing off a clip of The Daily Show, I wrote short bit about how cool it would be to do live “writings,” like a reading in a bookstore or a library but instead of reading existing work, we’d write something new, live, on the fly, according to ideas tossed at us from an audience. And then,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: tarot story”
A Writer’s Notebook: “This is happening”
This week, I’m going to give you the writing exercise up front, because it was a prompt and, in the “real” world, the audience would know what I was writing toward before-hand: The other day, I posted a clip from The Daily Show in which John Hodgman jokingly suggests authors stage live “writings” in bookstores,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: “This is happening””
Writer’s Notebook delayed till tomorrow
Just a quick note, readers: I’m putting off the Writer’s Notebook until tomorrow. It’s not because I’m lazy or — as has been the case lately — because I’m busy. It’s because today is my birthday, and I’m not doing anything that looks like work. Except fixing dinner, because I do the cooking around here.Continue reading “Writer’s Notebook delayed till tomorrow”
A Writer’s Notebook: one-sentence stories
The other day, some friends of mine and I were celebrating a new story by a writer friend of ours, Riley Schultz. Which is nothing new — I am lucky to know enough writers that I get to celebrate new fiction quite frequently. But what makes Riley’s story particularly noteworthy is that it is onlyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: one-sentence stories”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 