Category: Notebook
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Self-publishing’s quality problem…
When I pick up a book in a bookstore — which, more than likely, is a book issued by a publishing company, also known as a “traditionally published” book — I can usually assume that book will meet my baseline for quality*. In other words, it may not be a good story, the writing may […]
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Writing advice from Ursula K. Le Guin
The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination as a collection is something of a hodgepodge, but there are many valuable nuggets to be mined, so it’s a worthwhile book for any aspiring writer to consult from time to time. The personal essays in the first section, “Personal Matters,” are […]
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My North Carolina State of Mind – The New York Times
Here is a beautiful eulogy by author Allan Gurganis memorializing Nancy Olson, the owner of local independent bookstore Quail Ridge Books, and reflecting on the recently passed controversial law that, among other things, eliminates protection from discrimination for members of the LGBT community state-wide. This moving piece reminds me why I keep loving my home state and […]
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Literary elephantiasis…
Recently, I attended a panel discussion of local writers on something entirely unrelated when one of them said something that confirmed a suspicion I already had. He said that an editor had actually asked him to shove 10,000 more words into his manuscript. Apparently, long books look more substantial on bookstore shelves, so I guess it […]
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Negotiating with the dead: Margaret Atwood on what it means to be a writer
The short book, Negotiating with the Dead, is a collection of six lectures Margaret Atwood gave on writing. This is not a typical writing handbook, dispensing now-cliched advice like “write what you know” and “show, don’t tell.” Rather, Atwood tackles the question of what does it mean to “be a writer?” What is the writer, anyway, and […]
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Great writing for weekend reading…
Here’s a roundup of great writing found on the Internet in recent days… If you are squee-ing over the return of The X-Files like I am: The Nostalgic Science Fiction of The X-Files (Joshua Rothman @ The New Yorker) This Is the Hollowed-Out World that Outrage Culture Has Created (Ryan Holiday @ Observer) How to Raise a Creative Child. Step […]
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In which I critique American Beauty fifteen years too late…
I remember when I used to love to go to the movies. I went almost every weekend, because I could find a movie I wanted to see every weekend. I was often surprised by something entirely new: Pulp Fiction, The Big Lebowski, American Beauty. It seems those days are passed. I can no longer get to […]
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Hard truths about writing…
This is really such a great post by Chuck Wendig that every aspiring writer should read: 25 More Hard Truths About Writing And Publishing. Pursuing writing as a career is so full of contradictions. It’s an art, it’s a craft, it’s sales and marketing. You’re venerated, you’re reviled. You probably make crapola, even if you’re […]
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Procrastination may be good for creativity…
Adam Grant explains why putting things off may lead to more creative work (as long as you don’t leave it till the last minute).
Shannon Turlington 