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Very Dead Things, and a Small Box of Chocolate Bunnies
If you’ve read my most recent Friday post, you’ve probably figured out that the early-1990s TV series Twin Peaks looms large in The Missus’s and my collective imagination. (Actually, we have a habit of latching onto odd, off-center network series which don’t have a chance in hell of surviving past the first season or two [...]
Her Little Voice
[Above is the longer version of the Twin Peaks opening title sequence, including a fairly complete cast listing (at least for the recurring characters). The "official" and higher- quality version, with a truncated theme song and cast listing, is here.] [Note: Comments disabled for this post, for what will eventually be obvious reasons. :)] From [...]
Robert Frost, Grouch
Update, 2009-10-19: If you’ve come here by way of the BBC’s Justin Webb’s America piece on “Space, youth, and hope,” welcome! If you’re also here straight from the UK, , I also suggest that you skip over to the Phoenix Artist Club in London on November 3 for the London book launch event for artist [...]
The “Critical Mass” Progress Meter
Just kidding. I don’t really have such a meter — except in my head. The progress being metered, as you may guess if you’ve visited here before, is progress towards completion of a book — especially a novel. You can find real such tools scattered around the Writing Web, enabling you to depict your progress [...]
Paying Attention to Your Sense of Play
I’d already written this post’s title. And I almost began the body of it with these words: “Sometimes, you just have to”— But, nah. I don’t think everyone, not even every writer, “just has to” do almost anything, much less experience the sort of off-the-wall moment I did one afternoon, years ago. And even less [...]
Airborne
From whiskey river: As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think. (Native American Indian saying) Not from whiskey river: Don Juan and don Genaro stood up and stretched their arms and arched their backs, as if sitting had made their bodies [...]
It Is a Tweet Universally Acknowledged…
Truly brilliant stuff. Very brief excerpt: TheRealJaneAusten: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife. MrsB: A Mr Bingley–worth 50,000 followers a year–has joined Twitter! He’s brought a friend, Mr Darcy–worth 100,000 followers a year! Pls RT MrsB: @JaneB @LizzyB @MaryBsaphorisms [...]
Nothing (at All) Like Falling Off a Bicycle
Some people imagine. And some people just flat-out do… even in defiance of gravity. Hat tip to Haven Kimmel’s Blog for pointing me to this video:
Real-Life Dialogue
Patient (handing appointment card for his regular checkup to receptionist at desk in Super Mega Giant medical center): Hey, how you doing, I’m— Receptionist: I know. Got you right here. (Hands exam paperwork to patient; calls out to someone out of sight behind her.) He just got here! I’m sending him right back! (Patient wanders [...]
Mapping the WIP
I once read advice from a… novelist? playwright? not sure — anyhow, someone who said something like, “The hardest job in writing a story is getting a character from one room to another.” This stuck in my head because at the time I was struggling with just this difficulty. I kept trying to account for [...]
