Today, in the graduate fiction workshop I teach, we’re discussing a story written by a young white woman who grew up somewhere in the middle of the country. The story is told from the point of view of an older black woman in New Orleans. The student told me she’s never been to New Orleans.…Continue reading Write Well. Imagine Deeply.
Category: Writing Exercises
litbit: The Safety of Objects
Lately we’ve been doing some home improvements: new sofa, hanging pictures, rearranging furniture, considering painting our son’s room with the paint we bought two years ago, before he was born, and never got around to using. And this morning I came across this in the A.M. Homes story “Adults Alone,” from her 1990 Collection The…Continue reading litbit: The Safety of Objects
Claire Messud on ambition
Here’s a good interview with Claire Messud, author of The Emperor’s Children, on the Kenyon Review blog. So is ambition ever justified? There’s always something insane about it, there’s something always unjustifiable about it. But what would ever get done without it? Nanomo Writing Exercise: Write a story that is propelled in part by a…Continue reading Claire Messud on ambition
millions upon millions of words
Here’s a bit of a speech recently given by David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center–which according to its website “holds the ultimate ecclesiastical authority regarding the standard and pure application of L. Ron Hubbard’s religious technologies.” Miscavige gave the speech to a bunch of Scientologists who had gathered to celebrate…Continue reading millions upon millions of words
wacky wedding…are you clear?
With all the focus on the marriage between Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise today, here are some words of, uh, wisdom from official Church of Scientology website. Scientologists believe that there are two minds–analytical and reactive–which store different types of memories in different “memory banks.” They believe that in times of stress, the reactive (read:…Continue reading wacky wedding…are you clear?