Notes of a Novelist; doublethinking myself and playing with my words; Mister Slang; Powell's Books; The Mountain of Ignorance analogy; anti-religion rant; Emily Fox Gordon
Category: Writing Tools
Astronomy for the Writer
Including the moon in your story? Get the science right, right here!
The Reader: Diary, 7/1 to 7/6/21
The Reader Over Your Shoulder (book); movie reviews including Interstellar, Bright Star, and others; Hemlock Club meeting; colons and semicolons.
Novelizing: Diary 6/13 to 6/14/21
Writing prompts; Cioran quote and words as blunt instruments; Sophie's World; failing memory again; two bad movies.
“She was angry.”
Stronger and more vivid writing requires a variety of tools or models of expression. Here’s a partial catalogue of models, based on the example sentence, “She was angry.”
Inspiration: Diary 4/20 to 4/22/21
Getting inspiration; self-mastery books; psych quotes; movie reviews; sadness tweets; spirituality; racism; writing habits, etc.
Good Mornings
Dawn grew like a time-lapsed flower. Sunrise went “sproing.” The sun came up with a clatter of castanets. Sunrise shattered the night. The sun shattered the mirror of the eastern sky.
Diary, 1/26 to 1/28/19
Watched Bram Stoker’s Dracula, finally, a very ambitious attempt to make people forget the 1931 Bela Lugosi classic. Director Coppola took the only possible approach to such an attempt, going back to the original book and trying to bring the essence of that masterpiece to fire-breathing unlife. In this he was mostly successful, but some choices seem regrettably silly. The Videohound review at two bones is ridiculous, and the criticism of Winona Ryder’s performance as “way over the top” is even moreso...
Dobyns on Metaphor, and Henry James. Prison Diary Extract
"...extensive, excellent quotes from Stephen Dobyns on metaphor in poetry, with some great examples, a fine poem from Thomas Lux, and my thoughts on Henry James and The Turn of the Screw. Fans of James may wish to comment."
Tasty Words: Nouns
fob, hot pants, maw, nebula, occiput, puffball, scruff, acolyte, clodhopper, effigy, frogspawn, gerbil . . .
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