#onwriting — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #onwriting, aggregated by home.social.
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Want to Earn More with Your Writing? Have We Got The Seminar for You!
All spring we’ve been counseling writers who have come to realize that going wide with ebooks is not bringing in the kind of income that the writers had hoped for. The days off to all the retailers and making a small fortune are gone. Now, writers need to expand their horizons even more, doing other […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/07/26/want-to-earn-more-with-your-writing-have-we-got-the-seminar-for-you/#OnWriting #indiepublishing #onlineworkshops #publishing #seminars
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Want to Earn More with Your Writing? Have We Got The Seminar for You!
All spring we’ve been counseling writers who have come to realize that going wide with ebooks is not bringing in the kind of income that the writers had hoped for. The days off to all the retailers and making a small fortune are gone. Now, writers need to expand their horizons even more, doing other […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/07/26/want-to-earn-more-with-your-writing-have-we-got-the-seminar-for-you/#OnWriting #indiepublishing #onlineworkshops #publishing #seminars
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The Write Attitude: Short Story Craft
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to to pick up a copy. You can buy copies in ebook. Here’s a link to the ebook on the WMG Books site, but you can get the ebook anywhere. […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/07/22/the-write-attitude-short-story-craft/#freenonfiction #OnWriting #craft #JeffreyDeaver #publishing
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The Write Attitude: Short Story Craft
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to to pick up a copy. You can buy copies in ebook. Here’s a link to the ebook on the WMG Books site, but you can get the ebook anywhere. […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/07/22/the-write-attitude-short-story-craft/#freenonfiction #OnWriting #craft #JeffreyDeaver #publishing
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Deals For Writers
I know many of you don’t go to Dean’s website, which means many of you miss some wonderful online writing tidbits as well as some excellent deals. I mention the tidbits, but today’s email is about the deals. We’re running a workshop sale in the doldrums of summer. We figure many of you don’t have […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/06/30/deals-for-writers/ -
Deals For Writers
I know many of you don’t go to Dean’s website, which means many of you miss some wonderful online writing tidbits as well as some excellent deals. I mention the tidbits, but today’s email is about the deals. We’re running a workshop sale in the doldrums of summer. We figure many of you don’t have […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/06/30/deals-for-writers/ -
What’s a daily blog actually for?
I started this blog in August 2011 as a place to post a eulogy. Fifteen years and over 5,000 posts later, it’s no longer one thing. It’s a system that does several jobs at once — exposes me to material I wouldn’t otherwise read, forces a third pass on anything that catches my attention, makes me decide what’s actually worth keeping, and gives me an archive to come back to when I’ve forgotten what I once knew.
This thread is about why I keep doing it. Not as advice — I have no idea whether what works for me would work for you — but as the working-out of a practice that has shaped how I think for over a decade. The blog isn’t precious. It’s messy. I work with the garage door up. The thread is sequenced for someone wondering whether it’s still worth doing this kind of thing.
Working with the garage door up
constantine.name — October 2021Open with the metaphor that anchors everything else. Growing up with a garage means you know what it’s like to throw open a door and let the neighbors saunter up. “Turns out, that’s literally ‘showing your work.'” The blog isn’t a finished product on display. It’s the workbench, with the door open. If you know what I’m talking about, you can hear that door opening.
Take some time to reflect
constantine.name — December 2022The origin and what it became. “This blog started initially as a place for me to post a eulogy, and then it grew to serve many more purposes. It’s now solidly a way for me to reflect, and to work with the garage door up.” The blog is the forcing-function for daily discovery and reflection — not because it’s required, but because nothing else in my life makes me do it.
Should I keep blogging?
constantine.name — September 2022The four functions, named. Exposure, learning, integration, writing — “All of that goes into feeding my personal growth and priming my curiosity.” I ask myself this question at a frequency approaching every minute. The honest answer: “It doesn’t feel like stopping is realistically an option.”
Thoughts on Conversation
constantine.name — August 2022Different channels for different purposes. The blog stays messy and exploratory; polished work goes elsewhere. “Here on the blog things are messy as I’m working with garage door up. There’s a lot of discovery and reflection happening here.” Knowing what each channel is for is what keeps any of them from becoming everything.
The library
constantine.name — May 2022The archive as the rest of the system. “I regularly reread these blog posts myself to make sure the thoughts still look reasonable after some time sitting on the digital shelf.” The blog isn’t only for the reader. It’s the place I go to find out what I used to think.
And 7 years later?
constantine.name — July 2025Honest accounting at fourteen years and five thousand posts. Tom Critchlow wrote in 2018 about networked writing — write about people you want to reach, the lowly hyperlink does the connecting. Seven years later: “in 14 years / 5,000 posts I’ve never had anyone (an author of something I’ve linked to) reach out to me.” And that’s fine. “I don’t blog as a way to fish for connections like that. I blog as a way of working with the garage door up.”
Like letter-writing?
constantine.name — March 2026The current question, fifteen years in. A historian writes about relics — things not intended for future generations, but valuable precisely because of that. “I’ve now been typing away on this blog for fifteen years and what I have posted here has varied wildly in that time… While it has occurred to me to wonder what happens to the blog after I die, it had never occurred to me to wonder if there might be actual value to historians here. I’m honestly not sure what to do with that. Do I keep posting? Do I close the garage door?” The thread ends with the live question.
ɕ
#Blogging #OnWriting #Reflection #Threads -
What’s a daily blog actually for?
I started this blog in August 2011 as a place to post a eulogy. Fifteen years and over 5,000 posts later, it’s no longer one thing. It’s a system that does several jobs at once — exposes me to material I wouldn’t otherwise read, forces a third pass on anything that catches my attention, makes me decide what’s actually worth keeping, and gives me an archive to come back to when I’ve forgotten what I once knew.
This thread is about why I keep doing it. Not as advice — I have no idea whether what works for me would work for you — but as the working-out of a practice that has shaped how I think for over a decade. The blog isn’t precious. It’s messy. I work with the garage door up. The thread is sequenced for someone wondering whether it’s still worth doing this kind of thing.
Working with the garage door up
constantine.name — October 2021Open with the metaphor that anchors everything else. Growing up with a garage means you know what it’s like to throw open a door and let the neighbors saunter up. “Turns out, that’s literally ‘showing your work.'” The blog isn’t a finished product on display. It’s the workbench, with the door open. If you know what I’m talking about, you can hear that door opening.
Take some time to reflect
constantine.name — December 2022The origin and what it became. “This blog started initially as a place for me to post a eulogy, and then it grew to serve many more purposes. It’s now solidly a way for me to reflect, and to work with the garage door up.” The blog is the forcing-function for daily discovery and reflection — not because it’s required, but because nothing else in my life makes me do it.
Should I keep blogging?
constantine.name — September 2022The four functions, named. Exposure, learning, integration, writing — “All of that goes into feeding my personal growth and priming my curiosity.” I ask myself this question at a frequency approaching every minute. The honest answer: “It doesn’t feel like stopping is realistically an option.”
Thoughts on Conversation
constantine.name — August 2022Different channels for different purposes. The blog stays messy and exploratory; polished work goes elsewhere. “Here on the blog things are messy as I’m working with garage door up. There’s a lot of discovery and reflection happening here.” Knowing what each channel is for is what keeps any of them from becoming everything.
The library
constantine.name — May 2022The archive as the rest of the system. “I regularly reread these blog posts myself to make sure the thoughts still look reasonable after some time sitting on the digital shelf.” The blog isn’t only for the reader. It’s the place I go to find out what I used to think.
And 7 years later?
constantine.name — July 2025Honest accounting at fourteen years and five thousand posts. Tom Critchlow wrote in 2018 about networked writing — write about people you want to reach, the lowly hyperlink does the connecting. Seven years later: “in 14 years / 5,000 posts I’ve never had anyone (an author of something I’ve linked to) reach out to me.” And that’s fine. “I don’t blog as a way to fish for connections like that. I blog as a way of working with the garage door up.”
Like letter-writing?
constantine.name — March 2026The current question, fifteen years in. A historian writes about relics — things not intended for future generations, but valuable precisely because of that. “I’ve now been typing away on this blog for fifteen years and what I have posted here has varied wildly in that time… While it has occurred to me to wonder what happens to the blog after I die, it had never occurred to me to wonder if there might be actual value to historians here. I’m honestly not sure what to do with that. Do I keep posting? Do I close the garage door?” The thread ends with the live question.
ɕ
#Blogging #OnWriting #Reflection #Threads -
The Write Attitude: Sticking The Landing
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to to pick up a copy. You can preorder copies from all online retailers. Here’s a link to the ebook. The second edition of The Write Attitude is quite different […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/06/23/the-write-attitude-sticking-the-landing/ -
The Write Attitude: Sticking The Landing
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to to pick up a copy. You can preorder copies from all online retailers. Here’s a link to the ebook. The second edition of The Write Attitude is quite different […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/06/23/the-write-attitude-sticking-the-landing/ -
8 Creative Writing Hacks to Leapfrog Your Next Hurdle
Here are eight creative writing hacks to help novelists and short story writers finish their books and tackle their hard-to-hurdle obstacles. Written by Joe Walters, author of The Truth About Book Reviews.
The post 8 Creative Writing Hacks to Leapfrog Your Next Hurdle appeared first on Independent Book Review.
https://independentbookreview.com/2026/06/05/8-creative-writing-hacks-to-leapfrog-your-next-hurdle/#Blog #OnWriting #Beingawriter #creativewriting #CreativeWritingHacks
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8 Creative Writing Hacks to Leapfrog Your Next Hurdle
Here are eight creative writing hacks to help novelists and short story writers finish their books and tackle their hard-to-hurdle obstacles. Written by Joe Walters, author of The Truth About Book Reviews.
The post 8 Creative Writing Hacks to Leapfrog Your Next Hurdle appeared first on Independent Book Review.
https://independentbookreview.com/2026/06/05/8-creative-writing-hacks-to-leapfrog-your-next-hurdle/#Blog #OnWriting #Beingawriter #creativewriting #CreativeWritingHacks
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Il #libro di oggi è #onwriting #autobiografiadiunmestiere di #stephenking #scrivere #leggere #unolibro #libri #unolibri #scrittura #recensioni
https://www.valeriotagliaferri.it/on-writing-autobiografia-di-un-mestiere-di-stephen-king/
iscriviti gratis al #podcast #lafogliadacanto e ascolta tutta la #recensione
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“Not just wording, but thinking. Not just noise, but signal.” Sally Kerrigan walks you through how writing works, and how you can get better at it. alistapart.com/article/writ... #OldGold #WriteBetter #OnWriting #writing
Writing Is Thinking -
“Not just wording, but thinking. Not just noise, but signal.” Sally Kerrigan walks you through how writing works, and how you can get better at it. alistapart.com/article/writ... #OldGold #WriteBetter #OnWriting #writing
Writing Is Thinking -
“Not just wording, but thinking. Not just noise, but signal.”
Sally Kerrigan walks you through how writing works, and how you can get better at it.
https://alistapart.com/article/writing-is-thinking/ #OldGold #WriteBetter #OnWriting #writing
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“Not just wording, but thinking. Not just noise, but signal.”
Sally Kerrigan walks you through how writing works, and how you can get better at it.
https://alistapart.com/article/writing-is-thinking/ #OldGold #WriteBetter #OnWriting #writing
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Book Review Resources: How to Make Getting Reviews Easier
Book Review Resources is an indie author's guide on services that can make your review targeting journey easier
The post Book Review Resources: How to Make Getting Reviews Easier appeared first on Independent Book Review.
https://independentbookreview.com/2026/05/20/book-review-resources-how-to-make-getting-reviews-easier/#Blog #BookMarketing #OnWriting #authormarketing #BookReviewResources
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Book Review Resources: How to Make Getting Reviews Easier
Book Review Resources is an indie author's guide on services that can make your review targeting journey easier
The post Book Review Resources: How to Make Getting Reviews Easier appeared first on Independent Book Review.
https://independentbookreview.com/2026/05/20/book-review-resources-how-to-make-getting-reviews-easier/#Blog #BookMarketing #OnWriting #authormarketing #BookReviewResources
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The Write Attitude: Doing The Work Amid The Noise
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to head over to Storybundle to pick up a copy, along with ebooks by Jamie Ferguson, T. Thorn Coyle, Dean Wesley Smith, Robert Jeschonek and others. Everything in this bundle […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/05/12/the-write-attitude-doing-the-work-amid-the-noise/#freenonfiction #NewReleases #OnWriting #publishing #storybundle
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Hoping For A Productive Summer
My class ended on Wednesday with a surprise A+ on a quiz I hadn’t studied for. That was lovely. A bunch of other things happened these past few weeks, all good, which I really can’t share except to say that they were marvelous. And Dean Wesley Smith and I celebrated our 40th anniversary on Monday. […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/05/10/hoping-for-a-productive-summer/ -
Interview with an Editor: Liam Carnahan of Invisible Ink Editing
Joe Walters interviews Liam Carnahan of Invisible Ink Editing in this AWP edition of Interview with an Editor.
The post Interview with an Editor: Liam Carnahan of Invisible Ink Editing appeared first on Independent Book Review.
https://independentbookreview.com/2026/05/07/liam-carnahan-of-invisible-ink-editing/#Blog #OnWriting #editing #howtoeditabook #InterviewwithanEditor
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The Write Attitude: Sounding Like Yourself
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to head over to Storybundle to pick up a copy, along with ebooks by Darcy Pattison, Douglas Smith, Ron Collins, Tracy Cooper-Posey and others. Everything in this Storybundle is exclusive, including […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/05/06/the-write-attitude-sounding-like-yourself/#freenonfiction #NewReleases #OnWriting #AddisonRae #Billboard
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Video Experiments
I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with short video. Sometimes I add audio, but every now and then I do something that’s imagery and text. I’ve done that here, with the video I did for Dean Wesley Smith’s current Kickstarter campaign. There was simply too much information to cram into a talky video, so […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/05/05/video-experiments/#OnWriting #ScienceFiction #ads #DeanWesleySmith #Kickstarter
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The Write Attitude: Churning It Out
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to head over to Storybundle to pick up a copy, along with ebooks by Robert T. Jeschonek, Andrea Pearson, J. Daniel Sawyer, Dean Wesley Smith, and ten more great writers. […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/04/26/the-write-attitude-churning-it-out/#freenonfiction #OnWriting #publishing #storybundle #WriteAttitude
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The Write Attitude: Getting Lost in The Words
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to head over to Storybundle to pick up a copy, along with ebooks by T. Thorn Coyle, Ron Collins, Darcy Pattison, Anthea Sharp, and ten more great writers. Everyone’s book is […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/04/17/the-write-attitude-getting-lost-in-the-words/ -
The Write Attitude: Getting Lost in The Words
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to head over to Storybundle to pick up a copy, along with ebooks by T. Thorn Coyle, Ron Collins, Darcy Pattison, Anthea Sharp, and ten more great writers. Everyone’s book is […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/04/17/the-write-attitude-getting-lost-in-the-words/ -
The Write Attitude: Getting Lost in The Words
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to head over to Storybundle to pick up a copy, along with ebooks by T. Thorn Coyle, Ron Collins, Darcy Pattison, Anthea Sharp, and ten more great writers. Everyone’s book is […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/04/17/the-write-attitude-getting-lost-in-the-words/ -
The Write Attitude: Getting Lost in The Words
This post is a chapter from my book, The Write Attitude, which is now in a second edition. I’m posting it here to entice you to head over to Storybundle to pick up a copy, along with ebooks by T. Thorn Coyle, Ron Collins, Darcy Pattison, Anthea Sharp, and ten more great writers. Everyone’s book is […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/04/17/the-write-attitude-getting-lost-in-the-words/ -
"All first drafts are horrible" is a pacifying thought. If read from a certain angle, it almost looks like the first draft **should** be horrible. Maybe this thought started the idea that one should write the first draft quickly and carelessly. "You can always rewrite it later."
They don't build houses this way, do they? -
Recommended Reading List: March 2026
Technically, the first thing I finished reading was Anton Chekov’s The Seagull for my theatre history class. I’d read both the play and the short story the first time I was in college 100,000 years ago, and didn’t like them then. I decided to give the dang thing a chance again. Still didn’t like it, […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/04/04/recommended-reading-list-march-2026/#freenonfiction #OnWriting #Plays #RecommendedReading #AllyCarter
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Have you noticed that regardless of how good a draft looks, if it brews for at least 24 hours, you'll find parts to improve?
And the process has no endpoint. It seems like the trick is to let it brew for some time, but to still mark it as finished after a few iterations.#OnWriting #AmWriting #ContentArchitecture #draft #editing #writing
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Cover Art
On my Patreon page, I’ve been putting up free posts about the new and improved cover art that we’re doing at WMG. You can find a number of posts, but I thought I’d share this one with you here. (I’ll be sharing the occasional Patreon post throughout 2026 and maybe beyond.) You can sign up […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/03/08/business-musings-cover-art/#BusinessMusings #freenonfiction #OnWriting #ScienceFiction #SpaceOpera
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Get A Small Mountain of Science Fiction…
…in the brand-new Kickstarter that just launched. It features my bestselling novel, Alien Influences, which The New York Times calls “a well conceived, well executed novel,” my award-winning novella, Broken Windchimes, and a brand-new collection of my science fiction stories, called Strange People, Stranger Places. In addition, you can get all 28 Diving books in ebook format or more […]…
https://kriswrites.com/2026/03/03/get-a-small-mountain-of-science-fiction/#DivingIntoTheWreck #NewReleases #OnWriting #ScienceFiction #SpaceOpera
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Never reaching the sea
What I do now is think up a problem and a resolution to that problem. I then begin the story, making it up as I go along, having all the excitement of finding out what will happen to the characters and how they will get out of their scrapes, but working steadily toward the known resolution so that I don’t get lost en route.
When asked for advice by beginners, I always stress that. Know your ending, I say, or the river of your story may finally sink into the desert sands and never reach the sea.
~ Isaac Asimovslip:4a1193.
#7ForSunday #IsaacAsimov #OnWriting #Quotes -
The moment
The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you’re walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself. That’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.
~ Neil Gaimanslip:4a958.
#NeilGaiman #OnWriting #Quotes -
Truth
Remember that truth is the greatest thing in the world. If you will be great, you will be true. If you suppress the truth, if you hide truth, if you do not rise up and speak out in meeting, if you speak out in meeting without speaking the whole truth, then are you less true than truth and by that much are you less than great.
~ Jack Londonslip:4a938.
#JackLondon #OnWriting #Quotes -
Three great things
The three great things of life are: Good health; Work; And a philosophy of life. I may add, nay, must add, a fourth—Sincerity. Without this, the other three are without avail; And with it you may cleave to greatness and sit among giants.
~ Jack Londonslip:4a933.
#JackLondon #OnWriting #Quotes #Wisdom -
In summary
The chronological summary of a man’s life is of all composition for students perhaps the most futile. […] “What of it?” remains to be asked at the end; And if the student begin there, not rewriting the annals, but seeking throughout the characteristic traits, the typical activities, the expression of individuality, he will find no better practice. Thus not only the reader, but far more the writer, gains by the abandoning of the order of chronology.
~ Charles Sears Baldwinslip:4a931.
#CharlesSearsBaldwin #OnWriting #Quotes -
Broke my but
In my journey writing thousands of blog posts I’ve developed certain habits and a style. There have been a precious few points where I’ve intentionally made a significant change. I used to lead with the URL followed by the pull-quote, before changing to a more normal style of a quote with a following attribution. At one point I started adding slip addresses, and at another point I started reigning in my use of exclamation marks.
Recently I asked one of my mentors, Jesse, for feedback on some copy, and he made a comment about his personal rule to be very intentional about using the word, “but”. I didn’t think I was overusing it, but [oh no!] I often used it as a conjunction— I often used it as a way to connect two sentences to create a point and counter-point structure— Dammit, Jesse. Now I cannot unsee every “but” as a weasel word. You suck. Thanks for making me better.
ɕ
#JesseDanger #OnWriting #SelfAwareness -
Rewriting
Rewriting [is] very painful. You know it’s finished when you can’t do anything more to it, though it’s never exactly the way you want it… The hardest thing in the world is simplicity. And the most fearful thing, too. You have to strip yourself of all your disguises, some of which you didn’t know you had. You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.
~ James Baldwinslip:4a892.
#JamesBaldwin #OnWriting #Quotes #Simplicity -
The effort is real
If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; If you’re not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.
~ James Baldwinslip:4a887.
#JamesBaldwin #OnWriting #Quotes -
Endurance
Something that irritates you. That’s the anguish of it. Do this book, or die. You have to go through that. Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: Discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.
~ James Baldwinslip:4a882.
#Endurance #JamesBaldwin #OnWriting #Quotes -
The analysis part
Writing itself makes you realize where there are holes in things. I’m never sure what I think until I see what I write. And so I believe that, even though you’re an optimist, the analysis part of you kicks in when you sit down to construct a story or a paragraph or a sentence. You think, ‘Oh, that can’t be right.’ And you have to go back, and you have to rethink it all.
~ Carol Loomisslip:4a728.
#CarolLoomis #OnWriting #Quotes -
Simplify
Never use a long word where a diminutive one would suffice. When you want to keep a story moving don’t spend a lot of time going on circuitous side trips when you could instead proceed directly to the most interesting, active parts. Like that time I was in the Antarctic with Ernie and we had to abandon the Endurance to the ice, it’s important to use good visuals to make your point in as few word as possible. Also, there are clear rules for writing, such as: One should only write authoritatively about that which one actually knows. Other rules include: Don’t overuse colons; It’s important to know how to use a semi-colon.
Not sure how I got on that train of thought. It simply struck me to try writing a paragraph which was maximally incorrect. I should probably exercise more restraint. But what started this post— What prompted my title selection was:
I’ve decided to stop tracking my waist measurement. It simplifies my crazy list of things I try to do every day, sure. It also eliminates the number of times I go to weigh/measure and have to double-back for reading glasses to see the tailor’s tape. I had started tracking it so that I could calculate my waist to weight ratio. After a few years I’ve learned that the ratio is telling. Not in a depressing way, but it’s a very interesting number—I can tell my level of fitness, how I’ll feel if I try to do something (say, go run, or boulder,) and it’s a great indicator. But having the data didn’t enable to do anything.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯So, lest I go ever onward adding processes and things and systems and numbers— ahem. Dropped it.ɕ
#OnWriting #Snark #WaistToWeightRatio -
Lilliputian
Most great writers suffer and have no idea how good they are. Most bad writers are very confident. Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver, the bat girl in Yankee Stadium. That’s a more fruitful way to be.
~ Mary Karrslip:4a696.
#MaryKarr #OnWriting #Quotes -
Outrageous
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books.
~ George Orwellslip:4a693.
#GeorgeOrwell #OnWriting #Quotes -
I write to
I write to dream; to connect with other human beings; to record; to clarify; to visit the dead. I have a kind of primitive need to leave a mark on the world. Also, I have a need for money.
~ Mary Karrslip:4a691.
#MaryKarr #OnWriting #Quotes -
Only one !
Writing is hard. (I hear you besmirching my intelligence.) One thing I constantly struggle with is exaggeration and hyperbole. There’s an ancient Bill Cosby skit about Noah trying to collect the animals after building The Ark—”Two mosquitos… male? female?!” and an endless fight with the rabbits, “only two. ONLY TWO!” But this post is about my recent efforts to use only one ‘!’ per post. And you thought that was a stray space there in the title. In this post, I’ve only used one ‘!’ in my punctuation. (Quoted ‘!’ characters I’m accounting to the speaker’s quota. It’s my blog and I’ll make up the rules as I go along, thank-you-very-much.)
One dimension of writing which I find hard is getting the range of expression wide. Quiet in parts, so to speak… err… to write— middle-volume mostly, and just a wee dash of shouting like a Scotsman at level 11. Over on that shouting end, I find that when I’m shift-reaching-for-the-1-key more than once, it’s time to reign that high end in tad. All of which speaks to that old tip about awareness: That which gets measured, gets improved.
Another dimension of writing I struggle with is vocabulary: I get lost reading my dictionary. I get curious about pronunciation—don’t get me started about how dictionaries used to be prescriptive and now are simply lazily being descriptive—and I end up learning for the umpteenth time that hyperbole does not ever rhyme with the little mammal known as a vole. It’s always hyperbole like Brenda-Lee… And, somehow, I thought that the rhymes-with-Brenda-lee pronunciation was a different word that was something like some kind of poetry. Possibly because hyperbole actually does rhyme with poetry? And anyway, on my w-a-y to h-y-, with m-y magnifying glass, I stopped at “Hilbert space” when it caught my e-y-e at the top of another page, as it was said page’s final entry. (What? “n. [David Hilbert] (1911) : a vector space for which a scalar product is defined and in which every Cauchy sequence composed of elements in the space converges to a limit in the space.”) Rats! I forgot what I was talking about.
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#Dictionaries #Grammar #OnWriting -
How to tip ourselves
From now on I hope always to stay alert, to educate myself as best I can. But, lacking this in future I will relaxedly turn back to my secrete mind to see what it has observed when I thought I was sitting this one out. We never sit anything out. We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
~ Ray Bradburyslip:4a612.
#OnWriting #Quotes #RayBradbury -
But if you ask them
You know, Phaedrus, that is the strange thing about writing, which makes it truly correspond to painting. The painter’s products stand before us as though they were alive. But if you question them, they maintain a majestic silence. It is the same with written words. They seem to talk to you as though they were intelligent, but if you ask them anything about what they say from a desire to be instructed they go on telling just the same thing forever.
~ Socratesslip:4a538.
#OnWriting #Quotes #Socrates -
Bombast
When is the last time you read a dictionary? Have you ever sat down, and started reading the dictionary at the very beginning? My mind has been melted and reformed. My foundations are shaken, (and stirred.)
Things were defensive from the outset: The literally-first, full sentence I encountered—set off within a box, with a fancy-schmancy Merriam-Webster logo atop—is, “The name Webster alone is no guarantee of excellence.” Followed immediately by the we’re-sick-of-litigating, but-that-isn’t-stopping-us thumb in the eye of, “It is used by a number of publishers and may serve mainly to mislead an unwary buyer.” Considering myself forewarned, and forearmed with a magnifying glass, I pushed forward into the volume set entirely in a font size whose capital letters tower exactly 2 millimeters. Sure, the Preface—a two-column wall of microfiche occupying the totality of page 6a—was winsome, as far as, I assume, dictionary Prefaces go. Pragmatic was the listing upon page 7a of persons comprising the Editorial Staff. However, things became serious, bordering on salacious, with the Explanatory Chart printed, (apparently primarily for practical purposes,) in sprawled repose across pages 8a and 9a as a visual menagerie detailing the architecture and idiosyncrasies of the dictionary’s didactic details. None the less, the degree of magniloquence encountered in the long-form Explanatory Notes for that chart, which begin on page 10a, and which span some 40 columns, is penultimate.
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#Language #OnWriting -
What’s in a title?
Should I write the title first, or last?
Should the title be a clear signpost of what is to come?
…or should the title prepare the reader?
…prime their mental state, jar them out of common trains of thought, give them the first bit of context, …
Should the title be short, or loquacious?
An interrogative or a statement.
Should the tense (present, past, passive, active, …) match, or provide counter-point?
If I practiced by writing 2,509 titles would I be able to write a title for a post on titles?
Could I remove the titles entirely?
Should I remove the titles entirely?
What is my intention for having titles? (Hi Angie!)
Should I have the same intention each time I’m composing a title?
Could the title be revealed last—only after the piece is read?
Email has a subject line; not a title line.
Does a title convey the subject?
…always? …sometimes? …maybe it never should?
Can a subject be a title?
Could a title contain the subject but also serve some as-yet-undiscovered-by-me purpose?
Should a title set the tone?
…create tension? …allude to the subject?
…and be short?
Do people judge what I write by the title?
Do people who read a lot of my posts, versus those who are having their first experience, use the titles differently?
Or maybe the title’s primary purpose is to serve as a mental bookmark for the piece after it’s been read?
Wait. What was I going to write about today?
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#Intention #OnWriting
