Words “Words are only postage stamps delivering the object for you to unwrap.” ~George Bernard Shaw Since I let Wednesday slip away without posting last night, I’m writing this early on Thanksgiving morning. So of course, it is about being thankful. I have so many blessings to count, that I could write them down all day and then nobody would …
Story Webs
A Story Web Four years ago I wrote a piece for my on-line journal here about how a story can be an intricate web like a spider web. I wanted a picture of a spider web to go with it, but it was late October and the spiders were battening down their hatches for winter, I suppose. I looked all …
Spotted on My Walks
“Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne I love spotting things on my walks like this butterfly. I’ve been pursuing him or his brothers and sisters for the last couple of months in order to take his photo. They were all …
Jocie in Trouble at School
September 9, 1964 David Brooke here filling in for Jocie who got in trouble at school for eating a Tootsie Roll in class. She claims she just took a little bite in the hallway between classes. It wasn’t her fault that Mrs. Jackson picked on her to answer the very first question in English class and that chocolate sort of …
And So We Look for the End
I’m still searching for those elusive words “the end” with my deadline zooming toward me. Well, actually my original deadline is seven days gone, but where one deadline is missed, another takes its place soon after. So since most of my words need to be on the trail of those two sneaky little words that keep hiding from me, I …
Mystery Pictures and Writing Puzzles
Have you ever seen those close up, really close up, pictures of familiar objects and had no idea what you were looking at? I’m giving you a less challenging mystery picture tonight. Do you know what it is? Let me know what you guess. Or it could be you know what it is at first sight. Sometimes writing is like that. …
Winners, Deadlines and Notebooks
A pen and a notebook still work. Years and years ago, when I first began writing, that was the way I started – with a wirebound notebook and an ink pen. Not a ballpoint like this, but a real fountain pen that I filled up out of a little glass jar of ink. The jar had a little well at …
The Struggle of the Blank Page
“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” (Margaret Atwood) I’m struggling to write a story now. I love to write. I have always wanted to write. I have always been writing something since I was ten years old and maybe before. I like the feel of a pen in my hand, a notebook open in …
Looking Ahead to Writing Goals in 2012
“Never believe in mirrors or newspapers.” (John Osborne – British playwright and producer 1929-1994) Last Wednesday I looked back at 2011. I think it’s good to take stock of where you’ve been but it’s even better to look ahead to where you’re going. A writer can hang onto the last story too long sometimes and not reach out for the new …
Editing – Theirs and Mine – Part 2
All right, I admit it. This page is from way back when I used to write on the typewriter. Pre-computer days. The dark ages. But I kept this and used to carry it with me when I did school talks to demonstrate to the kids that editing is vital to making your story readable. I never did the cut and …