The Curse of the Human Race

Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing." (Benjamin Disraeli)

One of My Favorite Books: The Heart of the Matter

The Heart of the Matter (Graham Greene)

I’ve read all of Graham Greene. I was first introduced to him when I read Malcolm Muggeridge's memoirs, CHRONICLES OF WASTED TIME. I actually used his memoirs as a reading list for years. THE HEART OF THE MATTER was the first Greene novel I read and it had a profound effect on me as well as my understanding of what makes a great novel.

The Function of a Metaphor and Simile

"Because writing is an extension of reading, and because the students have been reading all their lives, it is understandable that the two activities might blur somewhat in their minds. Although it is certainly a good thing that their writing is informed by their reading -indeed, at the most basic level they wouldn't be able to write anything at all if it weren't-it has its dangers. The creation of metaphors and similes, for instance. "The boy hopped up and down' writes a bright student whose intuition, sense of rhythm and experience as a reader tell her a metaphor or simile is needed to complete the sentence, "like beads of water on a hot frying pan?' In the rush to meet the demands of intuition and rhythm she has written a weak metaphor. She has forgotten the function of the device, which is to make something crystal clear, to reduce to essence. She has tried to amplify, to add on, rather than reduce." (Frank Conroy from Dogs Bark, but the Caravan Rolls On)

On the Threshold of the Resolution: Insight

"As the first developmental focus must take us deep into the story, so the end of the last developmental focus must carry us back out again. It does so by means of the character"s "moment of insight" . . . . The moment of insight, sometimes called a "plot point" in screenplays, occurs at the end of the third developmental focus, either as the climax of that focus or as a realization associated with that climax. It is there, at the end of the third developmental focus, on the threshold of the resolution, that the character visualizes clearly what he must do to solve his problem." (Jon Franklin, WRITING FOR STORY, p. 106)

The Larger Life of the Novel

What I learned from reading so many novels, is that the novel, as it goes on, has to expand. It has to give you a sense of a larger life, not just the story you're dealing with, no matter how well it's told. There must be a sense of resonance, a sense that in that story is the knowledge of a whole larger story whose presence is felt.

(From "An Interview with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni" The Writer's Chronicle September 2002)

Verbs

Use verbs that connote emotion rather than merely describe action. For instance, strode, paced, ambled, marched, strolled, and tromped are all better than walked.

(From “Fiction’s Connecting Link: Emotion” by Kathy Jacobson from the book The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing.)

Chekhov's Memories

Chekhov was perfectly aware that he wrote out of his memories. He said: "I can only write from my memories, and I have never written directly from nature. The subject must first seep through my memory, leaving as in a filter only what is important and typical." We know some of the memories which were later shaped into stories, and it is instructive to observe what he took from them and what he left out. (From Robert Payne, The Image of Chekhov: Forty Stories by Anton Chekhov in the Order in Which They Were Written)

The Work of Writing

When I stepped from hard manual work to writing, I just stepped from one kind of hard work to another. (Sean O'Casey)

One of My Favorite Books: A Green Journey

A Green Journey (Jon Hassler)

A friend, Eric Walljasper, introduced me to the writings of Jon Hassler. I love his books so much I keep his latest book on the shelf unread until a newer book comes out. That way I will always have another Hassler book to read. A Green Journey is as close to a perfect novel as I have ever read. Agatha McGee is a wonderful character and A Green Journey and its sequel, Dear James is a wonderful picture of an older, stubborn woman dragged toward change.


A Green Journey

On Editing

When there is a book you love as a reader, editing is not a different thing from reading. You just happen to have a pen in your hand and a relationship which enables you to share all sorts of picayune and pertinent thoughts with the person who did this work. (Gary Fisketjon, Vice-President at Knopf)

Emotion Hooks

Without emotion, fiction becomes flat and boring. With it, you hook your readers, pull them in, hold them to the end, and make them eager for your next story or novel.(From “Fiction’s Connecting Link: Emotion” by Kathy Jacobson from the book The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing)

Writing is Easy

Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead. (Gene Fowler)

Children's Picture Book/China: Mei Li

Mei LI (Thomas Handforth) **

After spending an eventful day at the fair held on New Year's Eve, Mei Li arrives home just in time to greet the Kitchen God.

This children's book tells the story of a little Chinese girl who slips away from her family to see the big city of Peking (now, Beijing) in the 1930s. The story is too long and has no compelling flow, but the illustrations stand the test of time and the picture of life before Mao is informing.

The book won the 1939 Caldecott Medal for best illustration in a children's book, the second book to win that award.

Poetry: Rose

Rose (Li-Young Lee) ****

I'm not an academic and don't critique poetry as an academic exercise. I read poetry for the language and where it takes me. What I look for in a poem is concise language with images that take my mind to another place/plane. Often just one well-turned phrase is all I need to endear me to a poet.

I got much more than that Li-Young Lee's first book of poems, Rose (published in 1986). It was a profound discovery for me. There is not a weak poem in the bunch. The following is my favorite:

FALLING: THE CODE

1.
Through the night
the apples
outside my window
one by one let go
their branches and
drop to the lawn.
I can't see, but hear
the stem-snap, the plummet
through leaves, then
the final thump against the ground.

Sometimes two
at once, or one
right after another.
During long moments of silence
I wait
and wonder about the bruised bodies,
the terror of diving through air, and
think I'll go tomorrow
to find the newly fallen, but they
all look alike lying there
dewsoaked, disappearing before me.

2.
I lie beneath my window listening
to the sound of apples dropping in


the yard, a syncopated code I long to know,
which continues even as I sleep, and dream I know


the meaning of what I hear, each dull
thud of unseen apple

body, the earth
falling to earth

once and forever, over
and over.


Rose

Writing is Hard

Writing is hard for everybody except fools. (The Writer January 2003, From "What I know, for sure ... I think" by Susan Elizabeth Philips.)

One of My Favorite Books: Everything That Rises Must Converge

FAVORITES: Everything That Rises Must Converge (Flannery O’Connor)

The stories “The Enduring Chill” and “Parker’s Back” are masterpieces of construction and meaning. I 've read “The Enduring Chill” over one hundred times and I still see new things.


Everything That Rises Must Converge

The Emotions of a Character

Everything in your story will have greater impact if you have your character interpret it emotionally. Involve the five senses to give your writing strong sensory texture, then make sure you convey you character’s emotional assessment of what she experiences.(From “Fiction’s Connecting Link: Emotion” by Kathy Jacobson from the book The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing.

Does the University Stifle Writers?

Everywhere I go I'm asked if the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. (Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners, HBJ Publishers)

Writing Advice: The Complication

"To be of literary value a complication must be not only basic but also significant to the human condition." (Jon Franklin, WRITING FOR STORY, p.75)

Quote: Opening a Vein

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.(Red Smith)