Book

The time as come, the Walrus said…

January 30, 2012

The time as come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things…
I’ve been talking about writing; about publishing, about every stage of the creative life for over two years now, and aside from this blog, haven’t had the nerve to actually make my work available in book form.   This has to end some time, [...]

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One Last Post: NaNoByeBye

December 1, 2011

It is done.  As you read this, my NaNoWriMo novel is finished.
It went the distance, 78,300 words, or about 313 pages (or 1 and a half times the goal).  It even had an ending I liked.
So, I beg your pardon for bothering you with this, it’s just that it felt so good.  The book, “The [...]

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Why Do You Write? No, Really?

November 30, 2011

Spending a lot of time on a single writing project, in fact doing so almost to the exclusion of all else is an eye opener.  But the process is not alien, I’ve done it before (just finishing it today, in fact) and I am sure that at one time or other most of you have [...]

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Novel Translation – An Amazing Skill

November 19, 2011

I am about 160 pages (AKA 18%, Kindle) of a book called 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami. This is a long book, 944 paper pages (according to Amazon, my copy is Kindle, and rather than pages, it marks progress by percentages), and one which has come to the US with mixed reviews.  One reviewer called it tedious, [...]

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The Darker Side of the Writer’s Environment

June 13, 2011

 
If you’ll pardon the conceit, I believe that the secret to the success of the other half of the writer’s craft is paying attention.
In my opinion, writing is made up of two disciplines, the physical craft—discipline (mostly), style, structure, grammar, formatting, logic; the list goes on and on… and the mental craft, story, characterization, and [...]

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The Limits of Description

April 7, 2011

We have been spoiled by video media.  We can send and receive clues by subtle facial expressions, glances and background physical situations that we allow our audience to “pick up on”, clues, hints that if we mentioned in our writing would be a dead giveaway, a telegraphing of intent.
We likewise can show a process in [...]

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Anyone Can Write a Book

February 8, 2011

I’m not in the best of moods, just now.  Please consider this fair warning.
If you have written for any length of time—and have come out of the closet about it, so to speak—I am sure you have heard the infamous words, “I could (should) write a book”.  The phrase is almost invariably followed with something [...]

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Quips and Quotes: Steven Wright

January 19, 2011

“I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.”
              —Steven Wright
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How To Deal With Your Past, Published and Bad Writing

October 9, 2010

Sometimes I write trash.
How about you?  Does it ever happen that an essay, an article, a story, a chapter, even a whole novel turns out to be pure, unadulterated garbage?  No?  Well, You’re lucky.  Happens to me all the time.
What do you do when you find out you’re written something that is embarrassing?  How does [...]

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How To Grow Yourself Through Reading

October 6, 2010

Is that title a bit misleading, do you think?
Of course we grow ourselves through reading, but perhaps there is something we can, as writers, do with more care, with more skill, and in fact to get the result that the Buddhists call, “Skillful Means“.  As a quick note:  Skillful means is simply getting two, or [...]

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