Something a little intriguing for today’s writing challenge. Write against the photo for 10 minutes and share an excerpt of the results in the comments below.
Oberbaumbrücke, originally uploaded by LimitedExpress.
As part of my commitment to keeping this blog useful for both the reader and writer, I’m starting a new series of posts from today called #wordplay.
The concept is pretty simple; at some point of a writer’s apprenticeship, extending vocabulary becomes a necessary skill. This does not mean I believe writers should cram perfectly good prose with unnecessarily complex or jargonistic language, but rather that variety in word choice can yield rich, fertile prose where otherwise there might be desolation, or worse boredom, for reader and writer.
When used artfully, even unfamiliar words can feel comfortable to readers. But to draw out their full potential, writer’s must know each word intimately, and feel them as if they are true.
The good news is that finding new language to draw upon is actually quite easy. Every day spent reading is a chance to learn new words, and yet rarely do we take the time to note unfamiliar words down and nut out their definitions. So #wordplay is a way for me to record and share all the beautiful words I find while reading the authors I admire. With each word is a definition, and an example of its use by… Read more
You know the deal. 10 minutes of writing against the image below. Post an excerpt of what you come up with in the comments at the bottom.
Ellen’s Kitchen, originally uploaded by laydee_sara.
Longlisted for the 2010 Miles Franklin award, Patrick Allington’s debut novel Figurehead blends history and fiction to explore the turbulent rise and fall of Cambodia’s infamous Khmer Rouge regime. Allington delivers his thoughts on what it means to feel ‘finished’ and the challenges of taking on the big H in fiction.
It is all too easy to pigeonhole novels that draw from history. Blurbs pine over the phrase ‘based on a true story’ and yet rarely are we encouraged to consider what is lost and gained in the process of putting the story back into history.
In his debut novel, Figurehead, Patrick Allington explores the complex and brutal set of events surrounding the coming to power of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during the late 1970s. Rather than stick rigidly to the tracts of recorded history, Allington courts fact and fiction in delivering his absurdist take on the period, using the inconsistencies and misgivings of his characters to give readers a glimpse into the conflicted history of a brutal regime.
“I don’t want to pass myself off as some sort of Cambodia scholar,” says Allington. “I’m sure actual scholars would have no problem telling you the… Read more
Today’s coffee break writing challenge. Free write for 10 minutes in response to the below image. Share an excerpt of the results in the comments at the bottom.
sherbrooke, originally uploaded by uwajedi.
The latest issue of dot dot dash magazine hit the streets last week and the editorial folks were kind enough to include a copy of my short story Visitors along with it.
Visitors was a piece I wrote about six years ago and my first and only attempt at the crime genre. Having little to no experience in the genre, my challenge was to try and avoid relying on well worn crime staples like wise cracking detectives, worn out lieutenants and shady damsels in distress, and come up with a somewhat original premise. Crime can be a hard thing to fit into short prose as there is a tendency to eat up the word count setting up the hows and whys, leaving little room for fleshing out the characters and experimenting with the prose.
So Visitors was my take on crime back six years ago.
Synopsis: Widowed and alone, Helen’s only remaining connection with the outside world is a weekly grocery drop from her old friend Ben. Her hermit existence is interrupted when a bungled robbery leaves a dying man on her… Read more
A literary flex for Friday. 10 minutes of free writing on the photo below. Post an excerpt of what you come up with in the comments below.
Oh my god I love this.
At a wedding I attended on Wednesday night I lamented to a friend that trying to write a novel is not nearly as enjoyable as I thought it would be.
The problem, it seemed, was that I had formed an idea in my head that novel writing was somewhat like a movie montage. That all of the agony and self doubt that came along with writing could be gathered together to form a meaningful time line of the novel experience.
Through all the days that I was writing I would be kept motivated knowing this time line was being created. That no day was felt on its own, each a small clip in a larger, more filmic experience.
Every down in this montage would be juxtaposed with an up, and once set to an appropriate score, my novel endeavor would sweep along, the creative blanks drawing shorter, the sentences arriving quicker as my montage raced toward its ultimately satisfying conclusion.
Here I would find myself poised to finish the final chapter, looking out a loft window on a quiet snow cushioned forest. The hem of a turtle neck sweater warm around my neck, clean shaven, emotionally together, rubbing… Read more