An article in Fast Company magazine this week with the irresistible title “U R What U Tweet: 5 Steps to a Better Personal Brand” grabbed my attention. I’ve blogged before here about what I like to call the Brand of You – that is, what happens when you Google your own name. The standard new-media trope: your personal brand is the first 10 links Google tosses up. Google closely guards the arcane dynamics of its search engine, so controlling the Brand of You can be a troublesome thing. Read more »
My Newspaper Habit
I got back from a week-long vacation recently, only to confront the pile of neighbor-saved newspapers in the photo at left. A week’s worth of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Baltimore Sun, I can testify, weighs 15 pounds. Contemplating that pile of reading, I felt both pleasure (all that exciting information for me to ingest) and guilt. Think of all those dead trees. And where would I find the time in my busy life to work my way through that stack of papers and catch up on all that I’d missed? Read more »
An Act of Sustained Attention Implying Eventual Mercy
Today is theft day here at 317am, but it’ll be theft with a warm acknowledgement, so I make no apologies. When I was wrapping up my short-story class last month, Laura, who’s been a student and a friend for awhile, loaned me a copy of This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey, by Steve Almond. Half of the slim little paperback consists of short-short stories. If you flip it over, upside-down, the other half consists of little essays about writing fiction. That’s the part I’m going to steal from.
These words are worth stealing because they seem so true to me—so close to what I’m thinking when I try to compose characters on paper, my feelings toward them, my responsibility toward them—that I wish I’d been able to put it precisely this way for Laura and the others in my class. I certainly will read these to my next batch of new writers: Read more »
Tips for Writers: Characters from Life
“This book is for the timid, forlorn, and clueless,” Carolyn See says in her introduction to Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and other Dreamers (2002). It’s good stuff. See writes in a down-to-earth way peppered with examples from great writers and her own writing experience and pitched to the wannabe beginner – “the Out Crowd,” as she calls her audience. Her take on how to create rich characters is particularly useful. Read more »
Ted the Cat, on the Mend
We were fretting for awhile there about Ted’s health. But I’m pleased to say that our boy’s a resilient feline. After a series of intestinal problems in the spring, he bounced back in the summer. He worried us even more in the fall, but by the time the holidays rolled around he was once again ticking like a Swiss watch. I attribute this to the natural resilience of felix domestica, as well as to a smart veterinarian named Alex Colvin. In his dotage, Ted has gotten used to the car ride to the vet. In fact, he’d hang his head out the window like a dog if we let him. We won’t go that far, not quite yet. Read more »
Tips for Writers: Point of View
In my last post I made a distinction between the level of detail expected from writers in the Low Lit Tradition versus those who aspire to High Lit.. Robert B. Parker, master of Low Lit, handles character entrances like a sketch artist on Bourbon Street – a few quick, bold strokes, the caricature is established, and away we go. Read more »
IMAGE OF THE DAY
TED THE CAT
Ted the Cat (1994-present) is a domestic shorthair blogger and vers libre poet. He also enjoys sleeping, eating, and lurking. Ted the Cat co-habits with Kaze,
also a blogger at 317am.net.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Kaze
Kaze is Washington DC area writing guru Steve Altman. The nickname is Japanese for “the wind.” Read more »
RasoirJ
Ras at Texas BBQ in DC, site of lunchtime chats with Kaze on the art and agony of writing. Ras is also known in some publishing circles as George Clack. Read more »