Original Posting 5 July 2009 I was remembering. And went digging through the files, to find this. Happy (if a bit belated) Fourth of July! Hope you enjoyed fireworks, family, friends, and food... and probably a few things that don't start with "f"? tink Firewords and Revolutions 3 July 1995 [welcome, one and all...before I get down to drudgery, let me invoke a bit of the magic of words, just for...

Original posting 3 July 2009 Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go: "Whenever I'm blocked, I lower my standards. Wait, let me correct that: I abandon my standards completely. I urge myself to write badly and once I do that my fingers...

Original Posting 2 July 2009 Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go: "Whenever you read newspapers or magazines, read like a writer. While digesting the gist of the story, look for possible new takes, personality profiles to adopt...

Original Posting 1 July 2009 Right over here, CNN and Real Simple have an article about what to say in awkward social situations. http://us.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/06/30/rs.react.awkward.situations/index.html The fun part for us as writers is to take that situation, that seed of a scene, and expand on it. You can change it a little bit, but use that hint of an awkward social situation as...

Original Posting 18 December 1993 [drat - mr. ryan or someone posted a comment like this before I caught up, but I'm stubborn, I'm going to post this anyway. I think I used more words than he did to say it. what, no surprise there?] Had a very, very strange thought about this today. Now, suppose we consider that both poetry and prose use words, pretty much from the same vocabulary, and for pretty...

Original Posting 29 June 2009 (One of the list members had asked for suggestions about how to avoid freezing when answering questions in English) Some thoughts about how to avoid freezing when answering questions. My first thought is to take it slowly. Think about the steps in answering a question. First you hear the question, then you understand the question, then you figure out your answer, and...

Original Posting 29 June 2009 Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go: "A lot of writer's block is just laziness -- an excuse for not applying yourself. You've just got to make the effort consistently. Consider your novel or book...

Original posting 25 June 2009 A number of years ago, I was teaching a short seminar on creative thinking based on Edward de Bono's books. This was at MIT during the IAP -- interim activity period? -- winter break during January. Most of the students are still on campus, but there are no formal classes. Instead, faculty, staff, even students are encouraged to run seminars and classes on topics that...

Original Posting 23 June 2009 Writer's Digest, February 2008, pages 32 to 35, have an article by Bill O'Hanlon with the title, "baby steps." The subtitle is "Stop obsessing about writing a book. Instead, spend 15 minutes writing one page, five times a week for a year." The key is small steps. O'Hanlon refers to a Chinese proverb: enough shovels of earth -- a mountain. Enough pails of water -- a river...

Original Posting 20 June 2009 Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go: "When I'm having trouble, I read other people's work I admire. That gets me inspired. You can also visualize yourself as a movie director moving your characters...