by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 22, 2010 | craft of writing, mfa, reading, stories |
Like many of you, I feel that for some time now I’ve been reading like a writer. In other words, when I’m reading, I’m also noticing: tense shifts, point of view, use of time, distance between the narrator and the characters, the movement in and out...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 19, 2010 | craft of writing, reading, stories |
Here’s another one of those odd coincidences: It was January of last year that I did a post on James Salter who wrote one of my favorite novels, Light Years, and who in July of 2004 at the Tin House Writers Workshop told the audience: “I don’t read for pleasure...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 28, 2009 | my writing, stories |
My story, “The Empty Armchair,” which is loosely based on my first novel, The Painting Story, appears in the fall issue of Contrary Magazine. Here’s the beginning: Being sick has taken away the busy surface of my life. Gone are the errands and the...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 14, 2009 | my writing, stories |
My story, “The Splitting Sound,” appears in the fall issue of Clapboard House. Here’s the first paragraph: Across the street, I leaned against the yellow rental car. The house was smaller than I remembered, but that’s what everyone always said. The...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 29, 2009 | shapes, stories |
In Mary Gaitskill’s story collection, Don’t Cry, is a story entitled, “Mirror Ball.” It’s one of my four favorites in the collection and is described on the book jacket as an “urban fairy tale” in which “a young man...
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...
