The other day I posted Jane Austen's writing advice clipped from her letters to a writing niece. Afterwards, I got three different people writing me privately to ask, basically, what is so bad about figurative language ( Read more... )

Over here at his LiveJournal.

The take-away is that writers write.

(Curiously enough I recently read a YA novel that converses with fan fiction, by Rainbow Rowell, called Fangirl.)

Katharine Kerr channels my processWhen I was a kid, I couldn't write short stories because I always thought about "What comes after." When I closed a book, often I wondered about how everyone's life would change; in my stories, I could actually live it by writing it down ( Read more... )

. . . both as Americans and as writers . . .

I was rereading Byron's letters and journals over breakfast, and these two entries caught my eye:Whenever an American requests to see me-(which is not unfrequently) I comply-firstly, because I respect a people who acquired their freedom by firmness without excess-and secondly, because these ( Read more... )

Via jazzfish, Gertrude Stein gets a rejection letter.

Speaking of whom, I loved the version of Gertrude Stein in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. I don't usually much care for Allen, and Owen Wilson can be a little much, but I loved the Paris of the twenties in this paean.

superversive is rereading Aristotle's poetics, with recourse to Greek words and their meanings, and applying it all to the problems of today's storyteller.

First chapter here.

Second chapter here..

This is the sort of stuff I love to dig into in a group setting.

I hope you'llcheck out the video first--it's very short.

Judith Tarr wrote a YA novel that couldn't be pegged in the usual boxes. Her agent and several editors said "I love it, but I'm not sure . . ." where to put it on shelves? How to market it? Whatever. This post is not aimed at slanging agents and editors, who are dealing with the volcano that ( Read more... )

Today's riff is on writers and bad advice.

Yesterday I went up to workshop with the Greater Los Angeles Writers' Organization. What fun that was! There is always a heady energy being around other writers. Everybody gets it. I don't feel like an extra thumb. And so much talent!

Narrators, reliable and un.

I didn't actually intend to relate them, but I was asked to write a riff about Megan Whalen Turner, who does some nifty stuff with her narrators, so I'm linking it here.

Discussion welcome at any of these places, and that includes suggestions of books that do cool things with narrators and narration.

Starting off the New Year with a riff about Hilary McKay and feel-good books.

Wishing everyone an excellent 2012.