THE WEEK (motto: All You Need to Know About Everything That Matters) is a great weekly news magazine. We love it. It’s full of great writing from all over the world. Well, last week on the last page they added something new, a contest. The prize was one year’s subscription to The Week. We wereContinue reading “The Week's "What Next?" Contest”
Author Archives: Norm Benson
Conundrum for the Day
I listen to the podcast of National Public Radio’s Only A Game. The other day I heard a story about the collecting of stories for The Best Sportswriting of 2008. This set me to wondering, given that, whether we writers mean to or not, we use sexual symbols in our prose (see my previous postContinue reading “Conundrum for the Day”
I Think About Baseball When I Write
Crawford Killian has an interesting post about “Sexual symbolism in fiction“. Mr. Killian taught writing (if memory serves, though it might have been English Composition) at Capilano College for forty years and has written several novels. What brought the subject up was he had commented on the passing of Michael Crichton and how Crichton hadContinue reading “I Think About Baseball When I Write”
Multiple POV or Head Hop?
One tenet for writers, besides write, write, write, is read, read, read. I don’t recall where I read it, but a published author said (paraphrasing), “Don’t just read the great stuff, read lousy stuff too.” A couple years ago, I put the first ten thousand words of my story (working title: Timber Beast) on YouWriteOn.com,Continue reading “Multiple POV or Head Hop?”
Synecdoche
In case you missed it, there’s an interesting post on edittorent on the film, Synecdoche. Alicia makes some interesting points that a writer needs to be mindful of. 1. “Art isn’t life… Life is about living. Art is about selection, conflict, focus.” 2. For art, “[a]udience makes meaning.” No audience, no meaning.
What I Want for My Birthday
My thanks to Ann McFeatters for saying what we want. We [at least Americans like me] want competence. We want adults in charge. We want an end to partisan bickering. We want the billions we entrust to our government to be handled wisely. We want our nation’s credibility abroad restored. We want an end toContinue reading “What I Want for My Birthday”
One More Resolution for 2009
“I readily and resolutely resolve to not ponderously, pretentiously, or portentously contemplate; nor to passionately pontificate, nor to ostentatiously overwrite as the over-writer here does,” the wanna-be published writer purposefully averred vociferously and adamantly.
Hello 2009
I thank JA Konrath with providing a list of resolutions for writers that I could edit for my 2009 resolutions: I will finish revising the damn book. I will start on the next book. I will listen to criticism. I will update my website. I will master the query process and find an agent. IContinue reading “Hello 2009”
2008 — Maybe We Shouldn't Look Back
If you haven’t already, take a few minutes and read Dave Barry’s Year in Review: Bailing out of 2008. My favorite quote: John McCain, still searching for the perfect running mate, tells his top aides in a conference call that he wants ”someone who is capable of filling my shoes.” Unfortunately, he is speaking intoContinue reading “2008 — Maybe We Shouldn't Look Back”
2008 — Maybe We Shouldn’t Look Back
If you haven’t already, take a few minutes and read Dave Barry’s Year in Review: Bailing out of 2008. My favorite quote: John McCain, still searching for the perfect running mate, tells his top aides in a conference call that he wants ”someone who is capable of filling my shoes.” Unfortunately, he is speaking intoContinue reading “2008 — Maybe We Shouldn’t Look Back”
Nullius in Verba 