This week is a little random, but I’ll explain why below. When I lived in the States, I used to get a lot of junk mail. I got more junk than mail, actually, and I’m not including my bills in that. Brochures for apartments and trailer homes, ads for banks and groceries and shoe storesContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: found objects”
Tag Archives: Writer's Notebook
A Writer’s Notebook: First-line found story (revision)
This is a partial revision of the “found story” I began in last week’s notebook. And below that, I’ll write a bit about the revision process. No one was going to believe her, but the dog would not stop barking. That was how Margot put it, a metaphor she’d adopted like a slogan, the dogContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: First-line found story (revision)”
A Writer’s Notebook: First-line found story (rough draft)
This is going to be a two-part exercise: this week, I present a rough draft, and next week I will share a revision. This rough draft won’t make a lot of sense at first, but I’ll explain what’s going on below. No one was going to believe her, but the dog would not stop barking.Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: First-line found story (rough draft)”
A Writer’s Notebook on hold today
Sorry, gang, but there won’t be a Writer’s Notebook post this week. I was all set to work on it this evening, but I had the news on in the background, and suddenly, with no fanfare and almost faster than I could notice, Omar Suleiman went on Egyptian television and announced that Hosni Mubarak hasContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook on hold today”
A Writer’s Notebook: Poetry-to-prose revision
For this exercise, I’m taking an old poem (which I don’t much like) and turning it into a piece of flash fiction (which I like only slightly better). After that: why I did it. A Long Distant Line I am reminded of my dad’s woolen Boy Scout blanket, fuzz balling across it like mold, layingContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Poetry-to-prose revision”
A Writer’s Notebook: Spoken word video
A video is a strange thing to include in a Writer’s Notebook, at least in the sense that I couldn’t have written this in my little brown notebook with the unlined paper. But the purpose of the online Notebook is simply to create, and I’ll use whatever medium works. So bear with me, and I’llContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Spoken word video”
A Writer’s Notebook: “Underground history”
Gah! I didn’t write a Writer’s Notebook entry last week! Actually, I realized this last Saturday, and I probably could have knocked out a quick exercise and backdated it and just hoped no one noticed that I’d skipped a week. But I gave myself a pass for three reasons: 1) the Writer’s Notebook entry fromContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: “Underground history””
A Writer’s Notebook: writers talk writing
Today I’m offering three conversations about writing I’ve had with three different writer friends. The exchanges are a bit long, so I’ve divided this post into pages to help organize things. Check out the “table of contents” to skip to the section you’re interested in (but really, you want to read the whole thing). WhyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: writers talk writing”
A Writer’s Notebook: a reading meme
Okay, this is perhaps cheating slightly, because a meme is hardly a writing exercise, right? Except that it is. I’ll explain more below, but for now, let’s call this a review of my influences. I should also preëmptively explain that this meme is made rather tricky because I have to qualify my answers: When itContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: a reading meme”
A Writer’s Notebook: a blank page
`Tis the season for lounging around in sweatpants and drinking cocoa, daydreaming about the looks on the faces of those we love when they open our gifts the next morning. Oh, and writing letters and e-mails to family and friends recapping the year, which is what I’ve been up to. Not exactly Writer’s Notebook materialContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: a blank page”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 