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Posts by Carol Despeaux Fawcett

Mar 1

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The awkward art of writing sex scenes

“It is not sex that gives the pleasure, but the lover.” Marge Piercy

In The New Republic’s recent article, “The Smitten Word: The Awkward Art of Writing About Sex,“ author Sam Lipsyte writes about one of the most difficult subjects for writers to tackle–sex scenes.

He says the conventional wisdom that less is more is usually best, but it can also be a cop-out. He writes:

“Sometimes, though, you have to face the multi-spined beast head on. Be brave, and trust in your love of language and your love of sex. (Or lack of it.) Trust in the modern gods who guide your hand: Sad and Funny. Like it or not, these are the twin poles for most of our tiny thoughts and doings. Sad and Funny are both the world and how we withstand it.”

Read the rest of Lipsyte’s article for more do’s and don’ts of writing sex scenes.

You can also read my previous post “How to Write a Good Sex Scene.“

Feb 27

How to write surprise endings

In his book Plot & Structure,James Scott Bell has a great chapter on story endings. He writes about the different types of endings, including the twist or surprise ending.

In a way, all of our endings should incorporate surprise or the unexpected. We don’t want our stories to be so transparent that the reader can guess what comes next, eventually becoming bored with our story.

So how do authors come up with great twist endings? Bell admits he doesn’t know exactly as it’s not something that can be boiled down to a formula. But he does offer tips for helping us brainstorm possibilities. Read more

Feb 25

Three posts to help you mine your life for writing ideas

One of my goals this week is to brainstorm ideas for a series of new poems. I thought I’d go through some of our previous posts for writing inspiration.

I hope you find the following three posts helpful in your own quest for writing ideas:

“Exercises in memoir: finding your story” offers several exercises to help you mine your memory for anything from memoir to poetry to fiction.

“Embrace your day job for writing inspiration” offers a Ted Kooser poem and insights from Carly about finding writing ideas at work.

“Four way to cultivate writerly inspiration” lists more ways to find inspiring ideas.

Feb 21

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Use your “firsts” to propel your writing

Firsts are powerful: your first kiss, first love, first car, first death of a pet or loved one, first child. If you think back on your firsts, they will mostly contain a tremendous amount of emotion.

Talking with Carly yesterday about curse words, she mentioned that she remembered her father rarely, if ever, swearing. I told her that every other word my father spoke was the “f” word. Because I heard it so often growing up, the word had little meaning to me. To my ears, it was the equivalent of someone saying, “damn.” Read more

Feb 19

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Track your daily words with this website

George Burns once said, “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

Here at OneWildWord we often write about the power of words. We know that one word can begin an entire avalanche of words.

But sometimes, even getting down a single word can be a challenge. 

So, in my ongoing struggle to carve time out of my day for my writing and keep myself accountable, I started using a free service that Carly wrote about last year. At www.750words.com, the goal is to simply write 750 words per day. You receive points for each day you accomplish this goal and points for going over 750 words. Read more

Feb 15

Dream your words onto the page

Writer John Gardner once described novels as “vivid, continuous dreams.”

I like it when my dreams inspire my writing. But, lately, I’ve been overly busy with our business and having more work-related dreams. This week we had website issues that I struggled with and, last night, my hubby and I were discussing the website before going to sleep.

I ended up dreaming about websites all night. I tossed and turned, my subconscious mind trying to solve the problem, and woke up with some great insights this morning–albeit a bit tired.

Other nights, I usually read before going to bed–the favorite part of my day–so often my dreams will stem from what I’ve just read. When I read The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novelby Garth Stein I kept dreaming that we bought a new puppy that wrecked our living room furniture. When I read White Oleanderby Janet Fitch one night I dreamed I was an orphan living in the wilderness. Read more

Feb 13

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Don’t beat your head against the wall: Try these tips to develop a daily writing practice

A friend once told me that the best way to stop a bad habit was to replace it with a good one. At the time, she was trying to eat healthier and lose a few pounds. She said she found that trying to eliminate certain foods from her diet just made her want to eat more of them. She struggled with losing weight for years.

One day, she decided that instead of restricting her diet, she would add to it–healthy snacks and foods, including a plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables. A few of her goals: drink a green smoothie in the morning, eat vegetables at every meal, eat at least one salad a day, and snack on apples between meals. Read more

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