Want more Tuesday’s Tools? Click here! Your characters’ names are one of their most important aspects. In most cases, readers will learn their names from a dust jacket or other promotional materials before learning anything else about them, so why not make the names good ones? Kabalarians.com used to have a much more extensive list … Continue Reading
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New blogging endeavor
Just more shameless self-promotion today: I’m blogging with my compatriot, the very talented Chris Combs, over at Scrapple Spring Rolls (a delicious foodstuff). You’ll still get five posts a week here, but if you’re interested in tidbits (the leftovers of the leftovers, if you will) of DC life, bookmark Scrapple Spring Rolls as well.
LOLcat strikes back: the LOLcat translator
I can’t get enough of these inane furry creatures. Today (and yeah, I’m a little late on the game, but so what) I discovered LOLcat translation services: http://speaklolcat.com and http://txt2lol.com. Both sites are decent, but both suffer from computer-generated-translationitis. I guess language–even made-up language–is still too complex for machines to pick up on the subtle … Continue Reading
Coffee jargon
Flickr:Chris Campbell Most people know that oenophiles have their own language to describe the complex flavors in a good glass of wine. What may be more surprising is that the world of coffee has almost as many words. One of my favorite coffee sites, Sweet Maria’s, has a reference guide to all the lingo, but … Continue Reading
Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes
I’m on a Billy Collins kick lately, so here’s an excerpt of one of my favorite Collins poems : First, her tippet made of tulle, easily lifted off her shoulders and laid on the back of a wooden chair. And her bonnet, the bow undone with a light forward pull. Then the long white dress, … Continue Reading
Tuesday’s Tools: They Fight Crime!
This is the seventh in a weekly series about tools for writers. For the rest of the series, go here.) When you just don’t have inspiration for that fantasy or sci-fi epic, visit They Fight Crime! for the most creative story-starters ever. Examples: He’s a witless neurotic gentleman spy haunted by an iconic dead American … Continue Reading
Worth Reading: In Search of Bill Watterson
New York Magazine links to a Cleveland Scene piece about trying to track down the elusive Bill Watterson, the Calvin and Hobbes creator who virtually disappeared from public life after retiring from his comic strip. Also included is a biography of Watterson. I for one never knew all this about him. I knew the guy … Continue Reading
Nanowrimo part 2
So now that I’ve complained about how Nanowrimo steals a month of your life away and you’d have to be CRAZY to want to sign up, another perspective, excerpted from my post over at Dailywritingtips: Kickstart Your Writing With Nanowrimo Nanowrimo teaches important writing habits that no fiction writer can afford to ignore: 1. Discipline: … Continue Reading
This is an awful idea.
I don’t know what sparked it, as I haven’t thought about this in almost two years, but today I found myself at Nanowrimo‘s website, thinking about signing up. Nanowrimo–or National Novel Writing Month–turns November into Crazember, asking would-be writers and published novelists alike to crank out 50,000 words before December 1. This is your brain … Continue Reading
Always carry a pencil
Via Kahunna, an essay called Always Carry A Pencil: “An adept reader “phrases” a book as Ella Fitzgerald “phrases” Cole Porter, here leaning into the words and holding them back, there partnering them as Kafka partnered Goethe in February 1912: “I read sentences of Goethe’s as though my whole body were running down the stresses.” … Continue Reading