I had some difficulty with NaNoWriMo this year. I came up with a theme, imagined characters, devised a situation and started writing. Seven days later I had just over the 11,670 target words for the seventh day of November, but with the exception of two or three moments the story wasn’t moving me and I was not happy with the quality of the prose. Having completed three NaNoWriMo novels in […]
NaNoWriMo 2015
On Anecdotes
Here’s an anecdote: Late one rainy Saturday morning I caught the X9 bus going downtown. The front was full so I sat near the middle, on one of the long bench seats where your back is to the window and you face the opposite seat. I heard a woman’s voice from the rear. She was Filipino and I couldn’t tell if she was speaking English, but I did understand that […]
Why is Writing Well so Difficult?
Why is writing well so difficult? It seems easy. When we talk, we don’t have difficulty communicating. On the other hand, our appraisal of our chatter is not strict, not until we have to make a speech or a presentation. And when we speak face to face we receive feedback—discussion, questions, body language—to check how well our message is coming across. Good writers make written communication seem natural, easy, almost […]
Lies, and Fiction
Fiction is a lie, or at least an untruth. A good storyteller can make an untruth believable within the world or reality they construct. To become a good storyteller perhaps one needs to be a good liar. To become a good liar perhaps the starting point is to avoid clues that you are lying. # # # If you Google “Forensic Statement Analysis” you find lots of garbage; courses and […]
Writing Review: Nine Dragons and Burning Angel
I’ve recently read (some of) two novels: a randomly selected detective novel, Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly, and a cop novel that came recommended, Burning Angel by James Lee Burke. First, Nine Dragons. Grammatically fine, but the writing is not much beyond high school. The internal monologue is probably the best part, but the dialogue is flat and colorless. Often there are long stretches of dialogue with no action, no gestures, no […]
Micro-Fiction
There is a contest running on EveryDayFiction. The site gives ten words, you must use at least four, plus there is a saying which is optional as a theme. The maximum word count is 250 words. The contest is open for submissions for eight days, and I’ve decided to write a new piece each day. At the end I’ll select one as my entry. What I’ve learned so far: There […]
Narrative of the Seahawks
I’m a pretty big fan of the Seattle Seahawks. I don’t bleed blue and green or have a room full of swag, but I do have an official NFL football autographed by Mack Strong. My fandom goes back to the days of Zorn to Largent and Krieg to Largent, followed by years and years of enduring the mediocrity. I remember spending the Christmas holidays of 1999 at my brother’s place […]
Weak Characters from Plot Writers? The Prophet, by Michael Koryta
I read a lot of fiction; largely novels, titles pulled from readers’ choice or bestseller lists regardless of genre or authors, downloaded from the library in ebook format. Every book is a surprise, a challenge. Some less so because of the title or the cover, but still, in almost every case I haven’t read any previous works by the author. I do this because I want to be unprepared, tested […]