Category archives: Nonfiction
Surviving Turkey
I can’t sleep, so a blog post. The scariest moment of my life didn’t scare me at all. I don’t understand it, because looking back I’m nervous for myself. I get jittery. I keep myself from falling asleep. I was… continue reading »
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
, I hear. In Prose Style with Dr. Allison, we learned the importance of imitation writing. Three of the essays we wrote that semester were imitation pieces. I wrote a short story imitating As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner,… continue reading »
Tell all the truth but tell it slant–
When it comes to writing news stories, you need to tell the whole truth clearly, precisely. When it comes to writing reports, you do the same. When it comes to writing creative nonfiction, you tell all the Truth but tell… continue reading »
Bird by bird by bird
“… Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out… continue reading »
Install me in any profession….
O God, O Venus, O Mercury, patron of thieves, Lend me a little tobacco-shop, or install me in any professionSave this damn’d profession of writing, where one needs one’s brains all the time. – Ezra Pound’s “The Lake Isle” —… continue reading »
Wishing writing could change me
Sometimes I think my writing can change me. And it always can, but only to a certain extent. I want writing to bring me peace about a situation, but it’s only temporary. I think of my smoking poem from last… continue reading »
Go get a life
At a panel discussion with top literary magazine editors at the College Media Advisers NYC conference Monday, a quote by Rainer Maria Rilke came up. You’ve heard it before: “Write what you know.” One of the editors pointed out that… continue reading »
Cross-train
So I write a lot — go figure, I’m a writing major. But, I don’t spend a lot of time writing for fun. As outlined in my last Scriptwriting blog post, I do a lot of everything for my classes,… continue reading »
Sh*tty First Drafts
I’m learning the fruit of my creative effort often ripens instantly. I’ll sit down and get thousands of words, but then a week later, working with the same discipline, will have nothing. But my job is not to make the… continue reading »
Imagination
This weekend my friend Caitie and I went to see The Decemberists perform in Chicago. The Decemberists is one of my favorite bands, particularly because of lead singer/songwriter Colin Meloy’s imaginative writing. I think Colin was probably like me as… continue reading »