Day 10.1 Friday, April 16, 2010 Stranded still. The volcano continues to spew, the European authorities in charge of their respective airspaces continue to freak out, many of our fellow passengers are growing irrationally angry, and it’s looking more and more like we’re in this for a longer haul than anyone would like. We wokeContinue reading “The Netherlands: Days 10.1 & 10.2 (the Great Volcano Standstill, 2010)”
Tag Archives: writing exercises
A Writer’s Notebook: Script Frenzy
So, as you might know, my planned 10-day interruption in participating in Script Frenzy turned into two and a half weeks, because we were stuck in Amsterdam for a week trying to figure out how to get home. Then I was resting up, then working on other projects, like my travel journal…. Needless to say,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Script Frenzy”
A Writer’s Notebook: Capt. Snoek, the elder: Adventures at sea with Ted Snoek’s father (Pt. 2)
Today, we’re we should have been on our way home from the Netherlands (see the note at the bottom), so I’ll conclude the story of my great-grandfather and return to other writing exercises next week. As with last week’s entry, I’m still working from the basic interview-storytelling exercise I mentioned in the first “Capt. Snoek”Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Capt. Snoek, the elder: Adventures at sea with Ted Snoek’s father (Pt. 2)”
A Writer’s Notebook: Capt. Snoek, the elder: Adventures at sea with Ted Snoek’s father (Pt. 1)
Because we’re in the Netherlands, land of my ancestors, I thought I’d continue the story of my great-grandfather William Karel Snoek, Sr., who left his home in Hoorn, Holland at the age of 12 and took to a life at sea. There is no new exercise this week, though–I’m still working from the basic interview-storytellingContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Capt. Snoek, the elder: Adventures at sea with Ted Snoek’s father (Pt. 1)”
A Writer’s Notebook: Three perspectives
I have several friends who are visual artists, some of whom also write. In comments on previous blog posts and via several e-mails, I’ve been chatting about the relationship between art and writing with my friends Lori Ann Bloomfield and Crystal Elerson, and I thought it might be fun to try a sketching exercise asContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Three perspectives”
The hardest thing about writing
I’m preparing one of my novels for submission, and I’m writing a synopsis. I hate synopses. Like all prejudice, it’s an irrational loathing–I always feel like I’m crushing the story, stripping away the beauty and leaving just a skeleton, and I can’t help but think that if people want to know what a book isContinue reading “The hardest thing about writing”
A Writer’s Notebook: Haiku
Since I mentioned Benzaiten (and suggested a possible connection with haiku) in my last patrons post, I’ve had haiku on the brain. I am not a poet — or, certainly not an accomplished one — but I have always felt comfortable with the haiku. For me, haiku represents the best of what poetry can offer:Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Haiku”
A Writer’s Notebook: The salty but true story of the origins of one Capt. Ted Snoek
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”
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”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 