Posts Tagged ‘writing’
an apology and a clarification
A few weeks ago, I wrote about dialogue and posted excerpts from two writers whom I think do dialogue exceptionally well: Yusef Komunyakaa and Cheryl Strayed. But then I went on to say that Cheryl Strayed was an unlikable narrator, and Cheryl Strayed actually read the post. I hurt Cheryl’s feelings, and that wasn’t my…
Read Morerevision and Némirovsky
I’m sure some of you have already read Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française. For those of you who have not, you must go out and get it. Némirovsky was a Russian Jew who had lived in Paris for twenty years by the time the Nazis invaded France. She was a successful novelist and mother to two…
Read Morewho rocks the dialogue?
This week, one of my students wanted to talk more about dialogue because she was having trouble writing realistic, moving dialogue in her nonfiction. It’s a common problem, I think, for beginning writers because their instinct is to write dialogue in a vacuum: he said, she said, he said, etc. I want my students to…
Read Morestruggling with structure
No luck on Thanksgiving not gorging myself. In fact, I ate excessively all weekend. And now I have a horrible cold. (Not that these two things are related. I only wanted to point out that I’ve been uncomfortable—in slightly different ways—for many days now. With Sudafed off limits I’d actually go so far to say…
Read Morewhen I'm not writing
I was tagged by kyra at this mom with this writing meme almost a month ago, and I’ve been avoiding doing it. I am supposed to identify five writing strengths and list them here, but I find it so difficult to identify my strengths as a writer when I haven’t actually been writing. Before Stella…
Read Morekudos and a contest
I’ve just started my fall Loft class, and it’s so nice to be back “in it” again. I love the elated feeling, the “this is exactly what I want to do, what I love doing” feeling I have after a good class. But before I get too caught up in this term, I want to…
Read Moreon talent
First, thank you for all the supportive comments on my last post. I really appreciate it, and I actually feel much better this week (if the sensation of having vomit at the top of my throat can be considered “better.”) But, the nausea and tiredness are good things, clear signals that I am, indeed, pregnant.…
Read Moreawake and thinking
This morning, I woke up at 1:45 a.m. when my darling girl yelled from her room: “Mama, I had a nightmare. Lie with me. Lie with me, mama.” Now that Stella is no longer allowed to sleep in our bed, this is a frequently heard phrase in our house (and it is never ignored, which…
Read Morethe reasons we love
A couple of weeks ago, I used an excerpt of Beth Kephart’s A Slant of Sun in class to talk about emotional distance—writing the hard stuff without becoming sentimental. (I also used Lorrie Moore’s “People Like That Are the Only People Here,” but I’m not going to talk about that right now.) A Slant of…
Read Morefour decades of feminist mamas
In my class this week we read Miriam Peskowitz’s “Cheerleader” and an excerpt of Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born. We’ve now read motherhood pieces published in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and today, and I’m very interested in how the concerns and struggles of women and mothers have changed over the last forty years and how…
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