Subscribe:
RSS feed
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Joyous relief, dear friends! Today’s post is the very soul of brevity — and no exercises, to boot. ~~~ ~The Most Essential Thing In Copy Editing~ For heaven’s sake, turn on the editing marks when you’re editing. It makes things approximately eleventy trillion times easier. ~~~ ~Italics, Bold and CAPSLOCK~ Did you know that typing […]
July 27, 2011
I first heard the term “word salad” in a symbolic logic course. My professor used it to describe a certain type of philosophical discourse: the imprecise, the grandiloquent, and most importantly, the self-defeating or the meaningless. It’s the kind of philosophy that gets parodied — the kind that makes people think my BA is in […]
July 22, 2011
This is one of those times I just cannot believe I didn’t post this sooner. Instructions: to Thoroughly Happy, press play.
July 21, 2011
This is Constantin Stanislavski. If you’ve ever taken an acting class, you’ve studied him. He’s best remembered for his contributions to drama theory: attempts to create training for actors that will help them portray emotion realistically. Stanislavski’s system was at first based on the principle of “Emotional Memory”, the idea that an actor must prepare […]
July 20, 2011
[Written in 2012 but changed to #1 in the “Philosophy of Writing” series.] Let’s pretend for a moment that my silly little Philosophy of Writing series is a useful workshop or a university class rather than something that has been inconsistent and possibly entirely unhelpful. If that were the case, “How Not to Write a Novel” […]
July 18, 2011
Stuff You Need: the chapter from your manuscript in standard English that you prepared in previous posts, a computer capable of viewing pdf files. Please note that the rules of grammar I cover here don’t necessarily apply to AAVE or other dialects of English that aren’t considered “standard”! The process is the same, though. So by now we are […]
July 15, 2011
Before you start working, go back to last week’s post and prepare your workspace in the same exact way. You’re going to have to make this a routine. Pretty pretty please? Or at least do something else to block out the world for half-an-hour. It’ll help you focus and be chilled. Good things! ~~~ In […]
July 13, 2011
I’m a cynic. Not a believer, not a hater. I don’t think my personal beliefs really belong in my fiction except in subtle ways I can’t help (they leak into my characterisation, I imagine), so let’s just leave it at that. “Maybe” is a trilogy of books [N.B.: this is no longer true]. I dislike […]
July 11, 2011
A Prose Poem by a Synesthetic, Inspired by Zoe Keating’s “Tetrishead” Music spills from her in rivulets, winding about itself and through the room — suddenly a night sky, a scatter of light from stars — red wine thick like oil paint. It smells of windy hills out here in the middle of dark and […]
July 11, 2011
So this is you. Hello, you! I want you to mechanically follow my instructions. If nothing else it’ll prevent you from getting brain damage. Please note: Every single time I say “chapter” in this webinar, I’m referring to either a) one chapter of a completed first draft of a novel or b) a short story from your novel-length portfolio […]
not very alice 
August 12, 2011
3