I can’t write a post about women’s literature. I could, but it’s not my field of study and I’d just wind up offending the scholars who know what they’re talking about. But I can list some of the women authors and poets I admire most, which is all this is. And by all means, ifContinue reading “Women writers”
Tag Archives: writing
Dr. Seuss was Greek
I just wanted to jump in here and say hello to my friends and brothers at Sigma Phi Epsilon–Wisconsin Theta. SigEp is an outstanding fraternity based on the ideal of a balanced man and promoting the core values of Virtue, Diligence, and Brotherly Love. They seek to undo the negative stereotyping associated with many fraternities,Continue reading “Dr. Seuss was Greek”
Patrons of writing and teaching: The Muses
As I reviewed my list of writing patrons today, I realized that most of my patrons are women. I don’t know why this is, or what this might mean for my writing. A few years ago a friend pointed out The Gender Genie, an online gender analysis tool for prose–just paste in a chunk ofContinue reading “Patrons of writing and teaching: The Muses”
A Writer’s Notebook: Revision
I’m chest deep in a revision of my novel right now, but I’m also reading Alice Munro, who makes me want to work on short fiction. So I figured this week, I’d put my hands together and do a revision exercise on one of my long-problematic short stories. Because this is slightly complicated, I’m goingContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Revision”
A Writer’s Notebook: First line
For the exercise, see below. Henrietta stood nervously on the railway platform watching the passengers disembark. She could smell the grime down between tracks, the grease built up in the undercarriage, the stale odor of the passengers as their sweat and breath mingled with their alcohol, their cheese sandwiches, their dry newsprint, all of itContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: First line”
A Writer’s Notebook: Introduction
My friend Lori Ann Bloomfield and I have been swapping e-mails about writing exercises lately (from which exchanges I’ve cribbed some of this post). We were talking about first lines, and I mentioned that my story “Bathe in the Doggone Sin” started out as a first-line exercise. Which got me thinking about writing exercises inContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Introduction”
I wish I was cool enough to quote LL Cool J
I’ve said in previous posts that I’m a bit of a number cruncher. But there’s one number that I always avoided crunching: the ratio of my submissions to my rejections. I know without looking that the number is high. It’s bound to be–competition is fierce, and rejection is practically as much a part of theContinue reading “I wish I was cool enough to quote LL Cool J”
Writing as work; or, a new literary daydream
Wish I could claim this idea as my own, but I can’t. In fact, it’s a kind of convoluted web of connection, appropriate to the Internet but a bit confusing. I was reading a recent entry in the terrific little blog Literary Rejections on Display, which was in turn a reference to an e-mail commentingContinue reading “Writing as work; or, a new literary daydream”
Patrons of writing and teaching: St. Francis de Sales and St. John the Apostle
I’ve been writing off and on about my “patrons of writing,” but I feel I need to acknowledge that, for me, the term I chose comes from Christianity, specifically Catholicism and Orthodoxy, and the Christian notion of “patron saints.” So I figure it’s about time I mention a couple of my Christian patrons. According toContinue reading “Patrons of writing and teaching: St. Francis de Sales and St. John the Apostle”
“They said my writing was funny, just not ‘Archie Comics’ funny”: How to read a rejection letter
One of my early mentors once told me he’d rather get a handwritten rejection than a form-letter acceptance. It’s a great line. It speaks so well to the kind of personal attention we crave as writers. If we’re in any way professional about our work, we know that editors and agents are so overwhelmed withContinue reading ““They said my writing was funny, just not ‘Archie Comics’ funny”: How to read a rejection letter”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 