Writers write, right?

Theoretically, this writer writes but let's see how others do it. Where shall we go today?


  1. The Writing Show
    Where writing is always the story.

    This blog looks like a great resource. Here's a snapshot of what you'll find on the site:

    Sample Author’s Book Marketing Questionnaire
    A Few Lessons Learned from Publishing in America
    Doing Research for Hollywood
    GETTING PUBLISHED, WITH JEAN TENNANT
    GETTING PUBLISHED, WITH MARK LESLIE
    How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal
    Newsletter
    Press Releases
    TV Interview Tips for Authors
    What A Newsletter Can Do for You
    Writing Exercises

    The blog also includes podcasts of interviews with (God love 'em) actual WRITERS. Here's a podcast related to short story writing: Podcast: About Short Stories With author Nancy O. Greene, author of the collection Portraits in the Dark. Join Nancy and host Paula B. for a fascinating talk about short stories, including:

    What the characteristics of short stories are
    How creating character in short stories differs from working in the novel
    Whether it’s easier or more difficult to write a short story than a novel
    Why some famous authors take so long to write short stories
    Whether the short story is in decline
    How to put together a compelling short story collection
    Why Nancy writes short stories
    What some of her favorite short stories are.


    Date: March 5, 2007
    Running time: 01:01:27
    The interview: http://writingshow.com/podcasts/Nancy_Greene.mp3

    Nancy Greene’s Web sites: Portraits.bravehost.com; Writersgroupblog.wordpress.com

    Listen to The Writing Show's complete podcast collection in Odeo: http://odeo.com/channel/7166/view


  2. Writing and Humanistic Studies
    MIT OpenCourseWare is a large-scale, Web-based electronic publishing initiative.

    MIT OCW's goals are to provide free, searchable, access to MIT's course materials for educators, students, and self-learners around the world; and to extend the reach and impact of MIT OCW and the "opencourseware" concept.

    The MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies gives students the opportunity to learn the techniques, forms, and traditions of several kinds of writing, from basic expository prose to more advanced forms of non-fictional prose, fiction and poetry, science writing, scientific and technical communication and digital media.


    Click the link above for a complete listing of courses. Here's one I find interesting:

    21W.730-2 The Creative Spark, Fall 2004

    Course Description

    "Creative activity (isn't) the icing on the cake. Human creativity is the cake." (Jerry Hirschberg)

    Creativity - "the mastery of information and skills in the service of dreams" (Hirschberg) - is much prized in the arts, science, business and the classroom. What does the creative process look like? Under what conditions does it flourish - what ignites the creative spark? Attempting to answer these questions, this class explores ways creativity has been understood in Western culture: what we prize and fear about creativity and its wellsprings; how writers, artists, scientists and inventors have described their own creative processes; how psychologists and philosophers have theorized it; ways in which creativity has been represented in Western culture, particularly in 20th century films; and creativity in everyday life, including our own lives. [...]

    THE CREATIVE SPARK
    FALL 2004


    Homework #1

    1) WRITE a letter to me introducing yourself to me as a writer: What’s your relationship to writing? What are your hopes (and fears?) for this class? What happened with you and writing in high school (or elsewhere)? Anything else about you & writing you want to tell me? (e.g., is English your second language, writing you’ve done on your own, what you like to read . . .)

    1-1½ pages, word processed, single-spaced with space between paragraphs

    2) READ Didion’s “Why I Write,” Updike’s “Why Write?”, and Louis Menand’s “Bad Comma.” Updike is a novelist and short story writer who has also written a considerable amount of literary criticism and essays on general topics, from Ted Williams’ last time at bat to the genesis of Mickey Mouse’s ears; he is one of the major American writers of the second half of the 20th century. “Why Write,” like Didion’s “Why I Write,” was originally a talk. Didion is a highly-regarded novelist and essayist of the late 20th century with an especially distinctive voice. Menand teaches at Harvard and writes literary and cultural criticism for the New Yorker magazine.

    Select a brief passage—a sentence or two—from one of these three pieces and respond to it. NOTE: I am not asking you to explain the passage but to amplify it, extend it, question it, talk back to it—in short, to think about it in relation to something you know or have experienced.

    1 page double-spaced.

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