So I have been a very bad blogger--but I want to change!
Here is what I have been working on lately.
Here is what I have been working on lately.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Chainsaw Pant Bandit
The town that my office is in has been on fire with the news of a chainsaw panted bandit. God bless the Southwest... Where else could this be real?
http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-news-chainsaw-accident-story,0,920332.story
http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-news-chainsaw-accident-story,0,920332.story
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Pretty Excited!
My online fiction magazine made the cut for Duotrope!!! This makes need of official celebration! Woot!
http://www.duotrope.com/market_5552.aspx
http://www.duotrope.com/market_5552.aspx
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Just Thought This Was Interesting
Daemon Books is doing a book give away, seems pretty cool. Here is a link if you want to enter:
http://www.daemonsbooks.com/2010/12/29/giveaway-daemons-books-favorite-things-of-2010/
http://www.daemonsbooks.com/2010/12/29/giveaway-daemons-books-favorite-things-of-2010/
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Aphoristic Dangers of Show Don't Tell
On a recent paper for a philosophy of religion class I had a distinctly new comment about writing:
"My only significant problem is stylistic. Because of your aphoristic style, you often leave many things unsaid."
Now this is in no way a bad thing to be THE only thing wrong with a paper, but it got me thinking. On every writer's tips list I have seen they usually list "Show Don't Tell" as a major style problem of many writers today. I have tried being diligent to this, but now I see that as with pretty much everything else; moderation is key.
Let's expand on aphoristic style real quick (from Answers.com, Webster's Dictionary):
Aph·o·ris·tic·al , a.In the form of, or of the nature of, an aphorism; in the form of short, unconnected sentences; as, an aphoristic style.
So I was in a way showing too little and saying too little. I have seen authors (Søren Kierkegaard, Franz Kafka, Robert A. Heinlein, and Oscar Wilde) use this style with success, but this is a slippery slope to walk. If we, to burrow a page from Kolakowski (the guy the paper I got this comment on was about)--should we take show don't tell too far eventually we can end up saying too little.
This is not suppose to make you go out and stop warning about show don't tell problems (I know it is more common than too-little-tell problems). This is just an observation that falling too often into an aphoristic style can lead to disjointed sentences that lose their original meaning.
Writing is communicating with someone else. In a way writing is laying your soul and mind open for someone to pick through--hopefully with the intent of transferring something. Be that Something love, anger, memory, or a fart--a writer's foremost importance is being a communicator.
That's all I gotz on that thought for now, but I had another...
I think I want to start a writing project. Instead of writing on it once a week very intensively (like my current projects have been) I want to do a very minimal amount of writing but do it daily. So I am proposing to start writing 250 words everyday on a novel project for 90 days and posting it here. I know I won't do it every day probably, but my hope is to do it enough that after 90 days I can be proud of whatever I make.
--Because of finals this week I will probably start doing it on Sunday.
On that note, hope to see you back here on Sunday!
*Edit/Update April 5th, 2011--yeah let's reschedule the one-page-a-day-novel till life is not insane...
"My only significant problem is stylistic. Because of your aphoristic style, you often leave many things unsaid."
Now this is in no way a bad thing to be THE only thing wrong with a paper, but it got me thinking. On every writer's tips list I have seen they usually list "Show Don't Tell" as a major style problem of many writers today. I have tried being diligent to this, but now I see that as with pretty much everything else; moderation is key.
Let's expand on aphoristic style real quick (from Answers.com, Webster's Dictionary):
Aph·o·ris·tic·al , a.In the form of, or of the nature of, an aphorism; in the form of short, unconnected sentences; as, an aphoristic style.
The method of the book is aphoristic.
So I was in a way showing too little and saying too little. I have seen authors (Søren Kierkegaard, Franz Kafka, Robert A. Heinlein, and Oscar Wilde) use this style with success, but this is a slippery slope to walk. If we, to burrow a page from Kolakowski (the guy the paper I got this comment on was about)--should we take show don't tell too far eventually we can end up saying too little.
This is not suppose to make you go out and stop warning about show don't tell problems (I know it is more common than too-little-tell problems). This is just an observation that falling too often into an aphoristic style can lead to disjointed sentences that lose their original meaning.
Writing is communicating with someone else. In a way writing is laying your soul and mind open for someone to pick through--hopefully with the intent of transferring something. Be that Something love, anger, memory, or a fart--a writer's foremost importance is being a communicator.
That's all I gotz on that thought for now, but I had another...
I think I want to start a writing project. Instead of writing on it once a week very intensively (like my current projects have been) I want to do a very minimal amount of writing but do it daily. So I am proposing to start writing 250 words everyday on a novel project for 90 days and posting it here. I know I won't do it every day probably, but my hope is to do it enough that after 90 days I can be proud of whatever I make.
--Because of finals this week I will probably start doing it on Sunday.
On that note, hope to see you back here on Sunday!
*Edit/Update April 5th, 2011--yeah let's reschedule the one-page-a-day-novel till life is not insane...
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Max McCoy, live from Dogwood
I went to a journalism/writing/word-nerds convention in Kentucky a few weeks ago (just now getting things settled from the trip) and I am going to transcribe and talk about some of the seminars I went to on Concerning Fiction.
The seminar that really got me going and pumped about writing was by Max McCoy. He is the guy who wrote the Indiana Jones books, some westerns, but above all novels with mystery elements. In the seminar he told about how he became a writer and (without saying it all out loud) what it is like to be in the word-writing industry.
McCoy wore a plain dark navy suit, his hair was slicked back, and he wore a smile that said the milk in his coffee was a little sour, but he would drink it since it was free. He spoke in a dull timbre. He made sure to remind us that he had a day job, and at the end he told us the books on the table top were for sale.
I want to be Max McCoy when I grow; a shameless self-promoting writer/journalist who does and writes pretty much whatever he feels like.
Just to point out, these are his personal ideas, I cannot attest to any of these for sure--all I can say is I have heard a lot of these before so some of them are more than likely true.
But I digress. Here are the important bits straight from his talk:
The seminar that really got me going and pumped about writing was by Max McCoy. He is the guy who wrote the Indiana Jones books, some westerns, but above all novels with mystery elements. In the seminar he told about how he became a writer and (without saying it all out loud) what it is like to be in the word-writing industry.
McCoy wore a plain dark navy suit, his hair was slicked back, and he wore a smile that said the milk in his coffee was a little sour, but he would drink it since it was free. He spoke in a dull timbre. He made sure to remind us that he had a day job, and at the end he told us the books on the table top were for sale.
I want to be Max McCoy when I grow; a shameless self-promoting writer/journalist who does and writes pretty much whatever he feels like.
Just to point out, these are his personal ideas, I cannot attest to any of these for sure--all I can say is I have heard a lot of these before so some of them are more than likely true.
But I digress. Here are the important bits straight from his talk:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)