Apr 5
In honor of National Poetry Month, I’m posting one of my poems below. Ideas for poems are everywhere. Most of my ideas come from daily life–like this poem below, “A rice farmer from California.”
Please visit us again this month for more posts about poetry.
If you read my last post, you learned about a writing assignment from Ray Bradbury.
As part of his reading advice, Bradbury recommended authors who inspired him and shaped his writing. I’m noting some below in case you’d like to add them to your reading list.
Bradbury advises reading essays on a variety of topics, including biology, anthropology, and zoology. In particular, he recommends Aldous Huxley, George Bernard Shaw, and Loren Eiseley. Bradbury read Eiseley’s The Fire Apes (.pdf) and later wrote him a fan letter.
Also at the top of Bradbury’s list: John Collier – author of Fancies and Goodnights, a short story collection that won the Edgar Award and the International Fantasy Award in 1952. Bradbury described Collier as one of greatest writers of this century, who wrote brilliant short stories that deeply affected Bradbury when he was 22 years old and learning to write. Read more
Have you ever read a sex scene that made you cringe? I have. Have you ever read a sex scene that months, or even years, later you think back on and it still makes you sweat? I have.
The first scene, the cringe-worthy one, was written by one of my favorite male authors. It was so bad, I felt embarrassed for him. The scene was full of thrusting and grunting and other horrible, clichéd descriptions of the physical act of sex.
The second scene, the one I still think about to this day, was less about sex and more about the surroundings and emotions of the characters. Read more
Renowned author Ray Bradbury has an assignment for writers who want to improve their craft.
Read one short story, one poem, and one essay every night for 1,000 nights.
At the end of 1,000 nights, your head will be full of ideas and metaphors along with your own experiences and observations of the people in your life. His aim is for us to make new metaphors out of all of these ideas and images that are bouncing around in our heads. In other words, stuff your head with literature. Read more
Writers are some of the most avid learners I know. We want to know about everything. That’s why I love reading other writers’ posts. This week, these three posts taught me something new. Enjoy!
Finding Your Natural Writing Voice by Charlotte Rains Dixon. Some great ideas on finding the “voice” of your story.
Keep ’em Hooked by Laura Griffin. Are you making these mistakes in your chapter endings? If so, try these fixes.
Realistic Expectations for Writing a Memoir by Bill Roorbach, with Kristen Keckler. My favorite part of this short article is the last paragraph on polishing your work.
I have a theory that writing poems, or any form of literature, makes the world a safer, kinder, more peaceful place, not just for the meaning expressed in the sentences, but the effect the act of writing has on the writer and in turn readers.
Writing is a great equalizer — a way of connecting with people and by extension, the world. Because no matter where they live, people share the same feelings of loss and joy in the midst of tragic and hopeful circumstances.
Writing celebrates universal moments of surprise, love, and humor. It helps put perspective on our troubles. Transforms. Many people have been silenced until someone else’s words or images shined a light on their suffering, giving a voice to the voiceless.
Remember for a moment the heartbreak and joy we feel as we write — that connection with our characters and our humanity. Now imagine that when we do this for ourselves, we do it for the reader.
How has writing changed you?
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
In Ayn Rand’s The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers, she recommends exercising our writer minds long before we actually put words to paper. Then when we do begin to write, the ideas and words flow. I like her advice and think of it in terms of being playful and having fun.
As I read, sometimes a sentence or phrase stops me in my tracks. When this happens, I like to examine the sentence, learn from it or just play around with it.
This happened to me recently when I read this line: “Men do not often boil a woman’s rabbit.” I was reading best-selling author Bob Mayer’s description of different archetypes of men and women. At first, this sentence stopped me because I didn’t understand it. I had to take a few minutes to wrap my brain around it. Finally, I got the meaning—we often see women “boiling a man’s rabbit,” but not vice versa. Read more
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