Happy weekend, readers, and happy Labor Day weekend to my fellow U.S. Americans. I hope you’re all able to get some down time this weekend, unless you, like me, are taking part in Jami Attenberg’s Mini 1000 writing exercise this weekend, in which case, I hope your labors are fruitful.
If you’re in need of some fresh reading material to wind down your summer and move into fall, here are five goodies I’ve selected just for you:
Continue reading “Friday Five: Labor Day weekend reads”How’ve you been doing with your writing this summer?
If your summer has been anything like mine, your writing efforts may have been inconsistent, intermittent, or sporadic.
Or maybe you crushed it this summer. If so, congratulations! No matter how your writing journey evolved over the summer months, you have a chance to finish strong by signing up for the Mini 1000 this Labor Day weekend.
Continue reading “Labor Day weekend writing challenge: the Mini 1000”Writing humor is harder than it looks
During my university PR/marketing career, I got to work with many talented people, including one of the funniest writers I’ve ever read. But the work being what it was — writing mostly about academics and their research, all very serious stuff — this writer didn’t have many opportunities to let his humor shine through. That is, until we decided to start a blog to highlight an annual tradition that brought hundreds of alumni back to our campus every month. We put this guy in charge of it and turned him loose.
Continue reading “A funny thing about writing funny things”‘… a glimpse into the thoughts and ideas of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.’
Not too long ago, on a whim, I was browsing a list of Kindle deals on Amazon and discovered the book Ernest Hemingway on Writing was available for less than a cup of coffee. (The price has since gone up.) This collection of quotes about writing, pulled from Papa’s letters, interviews, and writings and edited by Larry W. Phillips, offers a glimpse into the thoughts and ideas of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, someone who took the craft of writing seriously. As Charles Scribner Jr. explains in his introduction to the book, Hemingway was “an artist wholly committed to the craft” who sometimes “showed an almost superstitious reluctance to talk about writing, seeming fearful that saying too much might have an inhibiting effect on his muse.”
Continue reading “Friday Five: writing wisdom from Ernest Hemingway”It’s ‘one of those Horrible Truths’ few writers want to think about
Behold, I share with you a mystery.
Ready?
The secret to writing is … writing!
That’s it. Apply butt to chair and fingers to keyboard, or hand to pen to paper, and write.
Continue reading “The secret to writing”“How do you become a writer? Answer: you write.”
Ursula K. Le Guin on How to Become a Writer
