May 2013
7 posts
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When I was five, I wrote a story about a dog and a balloon who become friends. (I dictated it. My mother wrote the words.) If I was able to think of such wacky stuff now, I would never again have to hear that if you write about a common experience, the writing has to be really spectacular to make up for it. Doesn’t the writing have to be spectacular no matter what? Does it follow that if you...
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When I was 16 or so, I took out a book of criticism by Harold Bloom. He called J.D. Salinger’s writing juvenile (or something along those lines) and said some other things that I perceived as way too harsh. I remember the shock I felt that a writer I loved so much wasn’t universally admired. I remember exactly where on my bedroom floor I was sitting and how I tossed the book aside...
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“Like in high school, whether we knew it or not, whether we were aware of it or...”
– Cris Mazza in this essay on The Nervous Breakdown. The essay was published several months back. I got the link from this post about age discrimination in publishing by Mazza on VIDA’s Her Kind blog.
Two of my anxieties when it comes to the PR aspect of existing in the world as a literary fiction...
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April 2013
29 posts
“What do I owe the real people upon whom I based my characters? I think I owed...”
– Marisa Silver (via mttbll)
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It always takes more drafts and more time than you think at first.
Waaaaaaaaa.
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Writing advice from C.M. Mayo →
I really like this. Especially the part about being kind to yourself and focusing on the present.
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What to do when your main character is... →
Good discussion of unsympathetic versus unlikable.
From Center for Fiction
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“I’ve never been so happy in my life. I’m alive, eating ravioli and drinking...”
– Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight (via vanishedtime)
“We encourage people to come to Morristown and enjoy all it has to offer. You...”
– Morristown Municipal Judge Gary Troxel to those appearing in court on public urination charges following the St. Patrick’s Day parade. (via njdotcom)
Oh, Motown…
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“There is certainly no absolute vision of our own place in the tiny corner of the...”
– Martha Gellhorn
“So in a sense love is just like writing: living in such a heightened state that...”
– from I LOVE DICK by Chris Kraus (via suzannescanlon)
If seduction is a highball, unhappiness has got to be the booze. -Chris Kraus Nothing fuels a good flirtation like need and anger and desperation. -Aimee Mann
“You have to be very fond of men. Very, very fond. You have to be very fond of...”
– Marguerite Duras, Practicalities, translation by Barbara Bray (via frenchtwist)
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“I write in order to produce inspiration rather than at the mercy of it.”
– Traci Brimhall (via mttbll)
This is a strategy I need to take more seriously. I know from experience it works, but I’m resistant at times. I get too caught up in “productiveness” and “results.” In general. In all areas of my life.
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16
dearoldlove:
I wasn’t a crazy bitch. I was sixteen.
“You cannot cheat with the law of conservation of violence: all violence is paid...”
– Pierre Bourdieu, Acts of Resistance, 1998 (via volumeundone)
“America is built on the gun. America is in love with the gun. It’s a sick love...”
– Ice Cube (via bostonreview)
GOOD MORNING MIDNIGHT: Meg Talks About Herself... →
mc1rk:
So I’m on this plane to Toronto, a glorified puddle jumper, a polite but bumpy and noisy hour-long affair. I gulp down a glass of wine, gnaw on some almonds. We head north and west over Albany, Buffalo, Rochester. I think of the train station in Rochester: bright colors in a grey city, a photo I…
Wow, wow, wow. Especially the second to last paragraph.
Wibbly-wobbly.: Three rules for a great diner →
martyrdom-or-suicide:
As many of you may know (but undoubtedly, most won’t), New Jersey is the diner capital of the world. This state is the home of the most diners per square mile in the country. Having been to several of these fine establishments, and several that were far less than fine, I consider myself qualified to come up with this list. The first two are absolute musts, but the third is...
March 2013
50 posts
“I recognize pain in the faces of so many people, and in the work of so many...”
– Interview with Claudia Rankine (via suzannescanlon)
I especially like the last line of this quote from the interview.
“Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.”
– Ernest Hemingway (via yeahwriters)
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Sadybusiness: HEKTOR: The Hektor The Dog Lifestyle... →
sadybusiness:
Life is full of so many stresses! You can be sad and mad sometimes, because of the many stresses, that you feel about things. Especially if you are a hard-working single dog. Hektor knows about the stresses. He is a hard-working single dog (except for the other dog. The other dog is mean, and…
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Oscar Wilde says keep your day job →
No problem, Oscar. No problem.
“You remember too much,
my mother said to me recently.
Why hold onto all that?...”
– Anne Carson, from “The Glass Essay” (via awritersruminations)
“For me, fiction is about memory. So much of my fiction is about my life. There...”
– Stephen Dixon (via mttbll)
“FOR THE TRULY MAD, IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO MERELY TELL STORIES. THEY HAVE TO ACT THEM...”
– via Fanny Howe.
(I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THE WAY IN WHICH INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES OF EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY IDENTIFIED WITH MEDICAL PATHOLOGY ARE A FUNCTION OF THE SAME HISTORICAL FORCES THAT PRODUCE THEM.)
Something I’m interested in as well.
“What is your favorite word?”
“And. It is so hopeful.”
– An interview with Margaret Atwood (via rosettes)
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Calling for submissions!
cairnpress:
We’re looking for good books in need of a home. We’re still accepting submissions until March 31st. Do you or someone you know have a completed fiction manuscript? Send us the first 20 pages!
Please help spread the word: http://www.cairnpress.com/pages/submissions
And no matter what… keep writing.
