Posts tagged as:

creative nonfiction

The Finish Line

end is nearSo I’m working on this piece. And I can’t seem to stop tinkering with it, even though I think it’s pretty likely the tinkering isn’t improving anything. How do I know when to stop rewriting? [read on...]

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Two Hats

two hatsBesides being MAD about Words, I’m mad about the movies. I often take The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, by Michael Ondaatje down off my bookshelf and read it again to feed my two obsessions. Murch is an Academy Award winning film editor who worked on “The Godfather” and many other great movies, including the “The English Patient,” based on Ondaatje’s book.

I can learn from Murch. I’m inspired when I realize how his editing decisions affected me, and I’m in awe that his work did not call attention to itself when I was first experiencing his films.  [read on...]

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Stamina

I can play with sentences for hours and hours.

johnirving “There’s no reason you should write any novel quickly. There’s no reason you shouldn’t, as a writer, not be aware of the necessity to revise yourself constantly. More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn’t say I have a talent that’s special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina. I can rewrite sentences over and over again, and I do.  [read on...]

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Shut Up & Write

shutup300We love to write. We want to write. We need to write. We long to write. And yet, we find all sorts of ways to avoid doing this thing we love, want, need, and long to do. One way we avoid writing is by gathering with other writers to do writer-like things.

And while it’s good to be around writer friends, let’s face it: talking about writing is not writing, reading your writing out loud to an audience is not writing, and jabbering about writing in classes is not writing.

So here’s an idea: instead of gathering to talk about it, why don’t we just quietly write together? MAD about Words is partnering with Dandelion Communitea to give you time and space for your poems and stories to happen.  [read on...]

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