This is the beginning of something, but where it goes, I don’t yet know: When I was in college I bought pot from a guy who kept turtles in a kiddie pool on his sun porch. I forget how many altogether, but he had at least a dozen in there. All kinds, too — aContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: newspaper/object story”
Category Archives: writing exercises
A Writer’s Notebook: a blank page
I’m regifting. Last year, the Writer’s Notebook fell on Christmas Eve, so I put on my sweatpants, poured a cup of hot cocoa, and begged off writing for the day. And I offered you, my readers, a blank page for a Notebook entry. This year, it’s the day before Christmas Eve, and I’m wearing jeans,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: a blank page”
A Writer’s Notebook: photo poem
It’s a photo exercise, but unlike previous versions, this one is a poem. And I have a reason for doing it. But, as usual, first the photo (this time an animated gif!): We stood in the street and watched the roof burn. The ridgepole a perfect line of flames, reaching like children for candy atContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: photo poem”
A Writer’s Notebook: poem from an old notebook (Retro #1)
I’m in a strange place this week. Recuperating from NaNoWriMo, wrapping up a fall term of teaching and grading final exams, and warming up my design skills for my first run as Jersey Devil Press‘s new production editor. So this week, I’m digging into my huge stack of physical pen-and-paper notebooks and posting an oldContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: poem from an old notebook (Retro #1)”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, the recap
So, it’s finished. A final total of 51,557 words, most of them bad, most of them destined for the trash bin. But that’s what NaNoWriMo is all about: pounding out words no matter how bad they are, without attachment to what you write because you’re more likely than not to cut it all anyway. What’s interestingContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, the recap”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 4
I’m behind schedule, thanks to grading, editing, and Thanksgiving. And with more grading coming my way, I’m going to be hard-pressed to break 50k by the end of November 30. But I’m determined, and with a lot more ideas running around my head, I’m not terribly worried about making the deadline. The weird bit, though,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 4”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 3
I’ve said before that I want this whole apocalyptic novel-in-stories to focus on the characters and their personal struggles more than on the trappings of the whole apocalyptic genre thing. Which is to say, I don’t want to eat up much page space with descriptions of the apocalyptic environment or background on how the worldContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 3”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 2
This has been a strange week. If you’re following my daily word counts, you’ll see a lot of spikes and dips: on days I teach, my word count plummets, sometimes into the mere hundreds; then, on days I don’t teach, it leaps up as I try to make up for lost time. So far I’mContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 2”
The sounds of my NaNoWriMo
Long-time readers know I love having music while I write. Sometimes it’s just background noise, but often it’s a specific set of songs, and in the case of whole books (like my story collection or two of my novel projects), it’s full-blown soundtracks, with each song selected and organized to reflect what’s going on inContinue reading “The sounds of my NaNoWriMo”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 1
I’m on day four of National Novel Writing Month. And it’s been a good but strange few days, because while I have a table of contents already and a relatively solid idea of what I’m writing about — the apocalypse, and, now that I’ve done some quick-and-dirty background research and settled some things in my head,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 1”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 