A weekly roundup of articles and information about authors past and present, the craft of writing, books, reading, and more.
I. Authors
From Poverty, Psychiatric Hospital, and Writing in a Shed to Literary Stardom: Janet Frame at 100 (The Guardian)
An in-depth article from The Guardian on New Zealand writer Janet Frame, whose centenary is celebrated this month with events in the UK and New Zealand. I was unfamiliar with Frame prior to reading this. Now that I have, I want to check out her work.
Fifty Years of Paying Attention (Slate)
Spend some time in the Bronx with writer Ian Frazier, a kid from small-town Ohio who wanted a job at the New Yorker — and eventually got it.
It's all right there in the title.
II. Writing Advice & Instruction
“The most frequent evasive tactic is for the would-be writer to say, 'But before I have anything to say, I must get experience.'” If you’re a would-be writer who thinks this way, then consider the case of Emily and Charlotte.
Back in 2011, South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone were guest lecturers in Professor Ken Liotti’s “Story-Telling Strategies” class at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Their lesson was full of great advice about such things as the need to provide motivation behind the events of a narrative.
Kurt Vonnegut Made Students Write Poems and Tear Them to Bits. His Priceless Lesson Still Rings True (Good)
Develop a hobby and practice it passionately, the famed author said. It's good advice.
How to Stop “Performing” and Write as Only You Can Write (Nieman Storyboard)
Author, journalist, and narrative teacher Steve Almond offers self-aware writing advice in a new "DIY manual for the construction of stories"
Five Tips for Writing better and Faster (Writer's Digest)
Career freelance writer Robert W. Bly shares his top five tips for writing better and faster, regardless of genre or format.
III. Writers on Writing
The Importance of Interiority in Novels and Memoirs (Jane Friedman)
In fiction, the concept of "interiority" can be defined as a character’s thoughts, feelings, expectations, reactions, and inner struggle. It can be used to mark character growth and change, as well as scene-level reactions to events.
[Note: This is an excerpt from Writing Interiority: Crafting Irresistible Characters by Mary Kole.
Amanda Glaze: Your Characters Will Always Tell You What They Need (Writer's Digest)
In this interview, author Amanda Glaze discusses the real-life spooky story that helped inspire her new young adult paranormal novel, The Lies of Alma Blackwell.
Author Steve Edwards says he's "never been an obsessive collector of objects" because he "doesn't like clutter." He does, however, collect endings to the essays he wants to write, and in his view, a writer can't have too many.
In this essay, Alexandra Marshall explores the tension between the diverging demands of fiction and memoir.
"Although my first purpose in turning from fiction to memoir was to restore to [my husband] the identity eliminated from his mother’s obituary, by being equally honest about myself, the consequence has been a private experience of that ultimate alchemy that turns violence into nonviolence and grief into love. With The Silence of Your Name: The Afterlife of a Suicide my reward for rejecting denial is my retrieved love for Tim, and now too for myself."
Science, geniuses, and celebrated writers all agree: if you want to maximize your creativity, sometimes you have to get very, very bored.
IV. Books
Amanda Jones is a Louisiana middle-school librarian who sleeps with a shotgun under her bed and carries a pistol when she travels the back roads.
Threats against her began two years ago after she spoke out against censorship and was drawn into the culture wars over book banning.
Ed Simon, Public Humanities Special Faculty in the English Department of Carnegie Mellon University, considers the act of storytelling as a means of preserving our humor and humanity in tumultuous times.
There is a long and distinguished historical record of posthumous books that are really good and literature surely would be poorer had these books not been published. Yet, how should we regard works that an author doesn't want to see in print?
V. Writing-Related Miscellany
When it comes to the written word, the anxieties that bubble up around new writing technologies are nothing new.
Your Self-Story Is a Lie (Psychology Today)
Some thoughts on what psychologists can learn from creative writers about truth, fiction, and identity.
For writer Sihaam Naik, the need to make zines went beyond self-expression—it was a necessary escape from the trivialities and constraints of 9 to 5 culture
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Thoughts on Writing is brought to you by the Butter Lamb Reference Library and The Ravens Way Review.
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