by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 9, 2009 | craft of writing, life, place, time |
In Wildlives, Quebecois author Monique Proulx creates a magical world out of the stuff of our world. Memory, silence, flowers, summertime, the lake–everything is alive. “The lake rose and fell and murmured beneath his paddle like a primitive animal mass, then...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 25, 2009 | craft of writing, details, reading |
So many things left unmentioned: David Foster Wallace’s skilled use of the French language: “Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rolants” (719) and hilarious translations from English to French: demi-maison (730) and from French to English: see Marathe...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 23, 2009 | craft of writing, details |
Following from yesterday’s Shakespeare quote, it’s interesting to note that the first two words of Hamlet are “Who’s there?” and the first two words of Infinite Jest are “I am”. I didn’t catch this. I read it on the...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 17, 2009 | craft of writing, details, Pam Houston |
The more I think about Pam Houston’s writing advice (via Henry James), that a writer ought to strive to be “someone on whom nothing is lost,” the more I want to be aware of what is going on around me. A couple of weeks ago, in the interest of...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jul 28, 2009 | craft of writing, Dani Shapiro |
Anne Enright, the author of The Gathering, winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize, just wants to write, but as Dani Shapiro recently pointed out, some days it’s easier than others. “I need to write,” Enright said. “I go bonkers a bit if I...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jul 17, 2009 | accumulation, craft of writing, stories |
Yesterday a flash fiction story of mine, Watching, was published in an online magazine called Six Sentences. Trying to tell a story in six sentences is enlightening because the writing process is compressed, making it easy to see what you’re doing and why. My...
