The setting of any scene within your writing can do a lot more than create a space for your characters to move around in. Here’s how you can make your setting work harder:
- Reveal Character: If this is a personal space to your character then everything there can reveal…
"Ideas? My head is full of them, one after the other, but they serve no purpose there. They must be put down on paper, one after the other."
— Camilo José Cela (via theparisreview)
Joan Silber’s new story collection, Fools, is on sale today.
“Fools is astonishing for its range, for its sweeping sense of time and place, and most especially for its deep insight into the way small choices can circle out to shape lives, and even human history.”
—DAN CHAON“Fools is a unique and fascinating collection that celebrates not so much a place or a family or a single life as it does an idea—anarchy—as it runs through three generations of loosely connected people.”
—ANTONYA NELSON“Joan Silber’s stories are like compressed novels. They are interlocking tales that fill in the history of revolutionary politics in the twentieth century.”
—EDMUND WHITE“Fools is a wonderfully winning exploration of impetuousness in all of its appalling and appealing forms, and its deftly interconnected stories are devoted to those dreamers who act rashly out of their better natures, who never quit asking the world, Can’t you do better than that?”
—JIM SHEPHARDNew Yorkers, don’t miss Joan Silber’s upcoming events at WORD, Greenlight, and Three Lives.
(via booksandpublishing)
"If you want to be a creative person, then you’re gonna have to be creative in how you put your career together. There isn’t a path. Part of the creativity is making your path."
— Alec Soth on creating a career in photography, and how he pays the rent today. Read our full interview here. (via americanphoto)
(via wordthug)
Whether you blog for fun or write novels, it’s essential for you to know the writing voice that is uniquely you. If you struggle with retaining readers or with being consistent in your writing, you…An exercise for finding your voice
Not sure where to start? No problem. Most of us need help understanding our voice. Here’s a short exercise that can help you — just follow these 10 steps:
- Describe yourself in three adjectives.
Example: snarky, fun, and flirty.- Ask (and answer) the question: “Is this how I talk?”
- Imagine your ideal reader. Describe him in detail. Then, write to him, and only him.
Example: My ideal reader is smart. He has a sense of humor, a short attention span, and is pretty savvy when it comes to technology and pop culture. He’s sarcastic and fun, but doesn’t like to waste time. And he loves pizza.- Jot down at least five books, articles, or blogs you like to read. Spend some time examining them. How are they alike? How are they different? What abouthow they’re written intrigues you? Often what we admire is what we aspire to be.
Example: Copyblogger, Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Ernest Hemingway, and C.S. Lewis. I like these writers, because their writing is intelligent, pithy, and poignant.- List your favorite artistic and cultural influences. Are you using these as references in your writing, or avoiding them, because you don’t think people would understand them?
Example: I use some of my favorite bands’ music in my writing to teach deeper lessons.- Ask other people: “What’s my voice? What do I sound like?” Take notes of the answers you get.
- Free-write. Just go nuts. Write in a way that’s most comfortable to you, without editing. Then go back and read it, asking yourself, “Do I publish stuff that sounds like this?”
- Read something you’ve recently written, and honestly ask yourself, “Is this something I would read?” If not, you must change your voice.
- Ask yourself: “Do I enjoy what I’m writing as I’m writing it?” If it feels like work, you may not be writing like yourself. (Caveat: Not every writer loves the act of writing, but it’s at least worth asking.)
- Pay attention to how you’re feeling. How do you feel before publishing?Afraid? Nervous? Worried? Good. You’re on the right track. If you’re completely calm, then you probably aren’t being vulnerable. Try writing something dangerous, something a little more you. Fear can be good. It motivates you to make your writing matter.
More than two thousand papers and other materials from Ernest Hemingway’s Havana estate, Finca Vigia, are being transferred to the John F. Kennedy Library. These will include passports showing Hemingway’s travels and letters commenting on such works as “The Old Man and the Sea.”
For more of this morning’s roundup, click here.
"To hold a pen is to be at war."
— Voltaire (via booksandpublishing)
(Source: mycolorbook, via booksandpublishing)
