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Finding your best angles
Know-how

Finding your best angles

I stopped going to my barber during Covid and, with the professional Andis clipper I used for my mustache, began giving myself an undercut. “You did that yourself?” people said over video calls. “It doesn’t look that bad.” “Wait till you see the back!” I said. But who cared
29 Jul 2021 3 min read
Know-how

When laboring over a phrase or paragraph

Consider possibility that it’s superfluous. See alternate advice here [https://bcgriff.com/know-how/write-sentence-when-stuck/].
18 Jun 2020
Know-how

Don't feel ready to write?

A friend of mine used to be a substitute teacher. When she got the call in the morning that she would have a class that day, she wouldn’t feel ready. She asked another teacher about this. “Of course you don’t feel ready. You’re still at home drinking
11 Jun 2020 1 min read
Know-how

When to stop writing each day

Someone in a writing group I belong to is working on a play. He’ll write one scene one day, another the next, then the two scenes don’t match. “How do you keep your writing consistent from one day to another?” he asked us. I told him rather than
04 Jun 2020 1 min read
Know-how

Examples of the call to adventure

Joseph Campbell [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell] in The Hero with a Thousand Faces [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces] describes a structure common to hero myths which begins with the call to adventure: > A blunder—apparently the merest chance—reveals an
26 May 2020 1 min read
Know-how

The best place to start your story

Roman poet Horace [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace] in his “Ars Poetica” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_Poetica_(Horace)] (“The Art of Poetry”) says of Homer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer] and the Iliad [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6130]: > Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab
19 May 2020 1 min read
Know-how

A heuristic for creating composite characters

Composite characters shorten one’s dramatis personae, tighten plot, and give anyone upon whom a personage is based plausible deniability. But how does one mix two people? One might as well mix last night’s spaghetti and meatballs with this morning’s breakfast cereal. I was daunted with the prospect
12 May 2020 1 min read
Know-how

Don't confuse flow states and good writing

Flow [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)] is what you feel when engaged in a task that hits the sweet spot between challenging and “I can do this.” When I shot my second documentary, there were days I was one with my subject. What I saw on the monitor
05 May 2020 1 min read
Know-how

Two kinds of writers: prodigal v. miserly

In the trailer for her MasterClass, Joyce Carol Oates Teaches the Art of the Short Story [https://www.masterclass.com/classes/joyce-carol-oates-teaches-the-art-of-the-short-story] , Oates says, “Writers are like cooks that—they keep everything in the refrigerator and put it all in the casserole. Like, what doesn’t go in for dinner
30 Apr 2020 1 min read
Know-how

How to write a sentence when stuck

When stuck for how to say something, write how you would say it, including all kinds of awkwardnesses, weird turns, and strange analogies. This might turn out a beautiful sentence that you can use as is. That said, a novel full of such sentences might read like Alan Hollinghurst’s
22 Apr 2020
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