My biggest pet peeve about writing on a computer is how I get lost in the stream of prose. This doesn’t happen with a stack of paper. At least I don’t think it did, but I’ve been writing on a computer for so many years it’s possible my memory of typewriter writing is faulty. I remember revisions involved a lot more retyping back then. I wouldn’t want to return to that, but eventually, in fact a few times in the course of writing a book, I reach a point where I must print and read my work on real paper, in order to get my bearings.
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As yet another storm front heads toward the Southern California coast, I can’t help some skepticism that rain can possibly arrive soon, because the sky here has turned blue and the air balmy. But I’m assured we’re in for a few days of rain. I plan to focus on fiction for the duration. To make up for sounding like a spoiled Californian who has no idea what winter is, I leave you with links to two stellar blog posts on writing and books, from Eric Mayer and Vikk Simmons.
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Is it possible we fiction writers are nothing more than escape artists who manage to write journals of our inner travels-hopefully in such a way that others willingly share our adventures? Fiction can be more enticing than reality. I would, after all, much rather imagine having a flat tire on a rainy night out in the middle of nowhere-with a complete story woven around it, full of interesting characters-than actually experience that flat tire and that wet, cold rain.
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According to a July 2004 article in the “News Room” of the National Endowment for the Arts, Fewer Than Half of American Adults Now Read Literature. The article cites statistics from Reading At Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. This 60-page report was created using data collected from a sample of 17,000 adults by the U.S. Bureau of the Census in 2002, at the request of the National Endowment for the Arts. Much of the blame for the documented decrease in the quantity of our literary reading over the past 20 years is placed on television and lower levels of education. The report defines literary reading as novels or short stories, plays, and poetry, and it makes no distinction as to the quality of the literary works.

Three points in the Reading At Risk report worry me most, as a writer hoping to sell my work: (more…)

A recent writing challenge from Vikk Simmons at Down the Writer’s Path reminded me of this DVD, which I’ve watched about a dozen times. It contains a memorable scene depicting the creation of a first draft, the subject of Vikk’s post.

Sean Connery plays William Forrester, the reclusive author of a single, renowned literary novel, who’s been holed up in his family’s Bronx apartment for years. He never goes out, and is known only by an alias to the superficial young man who delivers his groceries. (more…)

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I’ve been writing more on my novel this past week. Then today dawned stormy, starting out with thunder, wind and rain, a good day for putting on a sweater and gloves to sit on the front porch and think.

I’m contemplating the pros and cons of writers’ critique groups. (more…)

It’s a writing day for me. The coffee is brewing, and my mind is busy working out scenes, turning over words, trying out new ideas and word combinations. I think about why I write. Why is it I feel so driven to share my words?

Words are a human phenomenon. They’ve exploded with our population into every part of this planet, even into space. Each of us has so many words they spill over into others’ lives, more today than ever. We may not write letters the way people used to, but we remain an utterly wordy species. Email, blogs, cell phones, text messaging, personal websites, 40,000 people a year participating in National Novel Writing Month. Books, films, songs, news, television, junk mail—all of these incorporate the written or spoken word.

This reminds me of the singing of birds. One bird sings a sweet song, but a hundred birds singing in one tree sound like pure insanity. It can be overwhelming. We live in an age of information overload, and much of it comes to us in the form of words. Why are we so driven to keep adding more? (more…)

Checking in, with apologies for not posting more this past week. After my motherboard went out on my laptop, and I lost a few days of work I hadn’t yet backed up, I acquired a refurbished laptop and spent some time setting it up. The refurbished one works better than the old one did when it was brand new, which is a nice surprise.

I don’t use my laptop to post here, but keep it disconnected from the Internet, to encourage focus on my fiction writing. So I haven’t been online much while getting the new computer set up and catching up on some of the lost work. (more…)