I love words. I also love moments in TV and film where characters I enjoy engage in a meaningful conversation. It’s not a fistfight, a chase scene, or a conflict. It’s just them talking, using words to show us who the character is, what they believe, and how they feel. A film like Before Sunrise. […]
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Heroic Myth and Adrian Tannhauser
During class last week, one of my students asked about the importance of creating a character for our stories. I responded with this quote: “For me, the novel is character creation. Style is nice, plot is nice, structure is OK, social significance is OK, symbolism worms its way in, timeliness is OK too, but unless […]
Ten Sentences
I had an epiphany before class last week. Instead of simply giving my students a ten-minute writing prompt, I would change the game up a bit, forcing them to use even more creativity and description. Here is the assignment: Using only ten sentences, tell us a story with a beginning and ending. Every word should […]
What’s YOUR Story?
“Don’t ever apologize to an author for buying something in paperback, or taking it out from a library (that’s what they’re there for. Use your library). Don’t apologize to this author for buying books second hand, or getting them from bookcrossing or borrowing a friend’s copy. What’s important to me is that people read the […]
The Right Words
“At Cornell University, my professor of European literature, Vladimir Nabokov, changed the way I read and the way I write. Words could paint pictures, I learned from him. Choosing the right word, and the right word order, he illustrated, could make an enormous difference in conveying an image or an idea.” — Supreme Court Justice […]
Even Authors are Fans
“Soon Dawn appeared and touched the sky with roses.” — From Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” (W.W. Norton & Company, 2017, Page 220). Dr. Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey is the first published English translation of Homer’s epic by a woman. She is also the first author to receive a fan letter […]
