Archives » February 2008
CBC Winner Online
Every so often my Mom, who is an artist, talks about entering art contests held by, say, the National Parks Foundation or California State Parks. They are what I call literal art contests. They don’t want imagery or symbolism or abstraction–they want pictures of the parks. Half Dome in spring or a deer grazing on […]
What’s in a name?
I have a really hard time coming up with titles for things that I write, or naming things in general. After coming up with a killer first sentence, I forget that the first thing people will actually read is the damn title.
I normally end up with a boring title, erring on the safe side so […]February’s Writing Prompts
Short and sweet because I’m busy:
Feb 5, 2008 meeting: Word Pirates wrote for 20 minutes based on the titles of Goya’s Caprichos.
Feb 19, 2008 meeting: Word Pirates shared tales of living in the Bay Area and then wrote an essay around the “My Word” section of the San Francisco Chronicle. Guidelines here.
~ JoyModern Love = Book Deal
Word Pirates,
Remember that time I had us do an exercise around the Modern Love column in The New York Times. Well, dig those out and start working on them, because they could get you a book deal.
The New York Observer has an article on how many book deals have come out of that column. Apparently […]It’s a Bookcase, It’s a Staircase!
Hmmm… What do you think? Should I install a staircase like this in my house?
More here
~ JoyWhat is the opposite of a sellout?
Kelly Spitzer of “SmokeLong Quarterly” and Ellen Parker of “FRiGG” ask a group of writers about money … Do you only write for publications that pay? Do you pay reading fees and contest entry fees?
They seemed to agree that pay wasn’t a concern when considering where to submit their stories.
Dave Clapper, also of “SmokeLong Quarterly,” […]Zadie Smith Dislikes Judging, Poops Her Pants
Zadie Smith refused to award a prize in a contest she was judging because no one was good enough for her.
This is a difficult thing to write. Just like everybody, we at The Willesden Herald are concerned about the state of contemporary literature. We are depressed by the cookie-cutter process of contemporary publishing, the lack […]Reasons Some People Should Stop Writing
I am torn. The person who wrote this is one of those self-satisfied people I usually ignore, and yet I rather agree with his 101 Reasons to Stop Writing so far. Especially No. 1: You Don’t Buy Books.
One of the things I got from the Word Pirates’ experiment with NaNoWriMo: By the end of the […]