Posts tagged writing
citizen kerry
Someday i'm going to understand America. Until then, I have this blog.
86 notes &
10 reasons why the listicle has replaced the short story as the great american literary form
1. In the style of Raymond Carver, they’re deceptively simple and utterly profound.
2. In the style of Chekhov (not an American, but the father of the short story), they start in middle.
3. In the style of F. Scott Fitzgerald, they’re about issues of the day.
4. Much like J.D. Salinger, they appeal to adolescents and often use contemporary slang.
5. In the style of Ernest Hemingway, they’ve trimmed the fat.
38 notes &
so good they can’t ignore you (a book review, mostly)
I was in Philly this weekend for a wedding, and on the way there, I read a career-self-help book by Cal Newport called So Good They Can’t Ignore You.
87 notes &
how to tell when you are sitting on (writerly) gold
(I’m copying the venerable Justine Musk with this outline format.)
1.
In the past year, I’ve told three friends that they were sitting on gold, because they have stories so compelling, so original—and with a three-act structure to boot—that anyone would want to read them. My friends just need to type!
Will they listen to me? I don’t know.
Maybe writing’s not the priority now. Perhaps they don’t trust me because I speak in hyperbole and am prone to exclamation (!).
(In fact, one of the reasons I love writing is that I can manage my effusiveness in a way that I can’t in real life, due to my elastic face and crazy expressions.)
72 notes &
how to write like a boss, make the big bucks, and get famous*
I’ve been wasting my life in writing workshops, trying to articulate ideas, and generally believing the Bird by Bird bullshit that “the process” can help one understand the world.
All this time, I’ve been thinking like a little girl and had I been serious about myself or my career, I would’ve been thinking like a boss.
I want to spare you these mistakes and more importantly: save you time. Because even a boss can’t buy time.
63 notes &
happy vacations are all alike; every unhappy vacation is unhappy in its own way
