“Ambivalence” doesn’t even come close to capturing my schizoid views about magic (or magical) realism.
The term has been around since the early part of the twentieth century, and for most of its life has been associated especially with the work of certain Latin American authors. Here’s part of the definition from A Glossary of Literary [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Paying Attention'
Paying Attention to the Magical
February 13th, 2010 · 10 Comments
Tags: Paying Attention · Reading · Ruminations · Seems to Fit · Style and Craft · The Missus · Writing
Paying Attention to Unpleasantness
October 10th, 2009 · 17 Comments
[Image: "Marshmallow Gun" (excerpt) -- click for full original at xkcd.]
I realized a couple days ago — during this criminally busy week — that I hadn’t posted any writing samples in a long time.
Many of the (non-blogging) pieces I’ve posted on RAMH are grouped together under the category called “Paying Attention.” But I don’t post [...]
Tags: Paying Attention · Ruminations · Seems to Fit · Style and Craft · Writing
Paying Attention to Your Sense of Play
May 23rd, 2009 · No Comments
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 than [...]
Tags: Everyday Life · Humor · Looking Backward · Paying Attention · Short Fiction · Writing
Paying Attention to I-Don’t-Know-What
February 24th, 2009 · 4 Comments
When telling people about my flipping back and forth from technical writing to fiction, I usually say I went for five years without writing anything at all.
That’s not exactly true. Truth is, after about four years I’d had enough. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I didn’t have anything specific I meant to write, but just [...]
Tags: Looking Backward · Paying Attention · Short Fiction · Style and Craft · Writing
Paying Attention to Bits of Everyday Life
January 31st, 2009 · 6 Comments
When writing-related blogs ask their writing audience when, exactly, they “knew” they were writers, the answer most commonly offered is: I’ve always wanted to write.
Not so, in my case. Up until seventh grade, I had no such ambition, although teachers and family members had often complimented me on my writing. (I remember one grandmother — [...]
Tags: Looking Backward · Paying Attention · Short Fiction · Writing
Paying Attention to Meaning
January 14th, 2009 · No Comments
I wanted to try something… something different for our writing workshop back then.
Not something funny (or was it?). Not something in the psychological horror line. Not a genre piece, not an obviously literary piece. For that matter, none of the things that would pop into workshoppers’ heads when they sat down to read it and [...]
Tags: Language · Looking Backward · Paying Attention · Reading · Short Fiction · Style and Craft · Writing
Paying Attention to Action — or Is It Character?
December 30th, 2008 · 4 Comments
I’ve written here before (here and here) about the terrors of newly-published-authordom — particularly, when the bad reviews land in your mailbox.
But sometimes, even a bad review contains a nugget you cling to when the whole damned thing threatens to come unraveled, when your spirit sags and you wonder why you’re even bothering to continue.
In [...]
Tags: Paying Attention · Short Fiction · Style and Craft · Writing
Paying Attention to History
November 9th, 2008 · 1 Comment
If you’ve been visiting Running After My Hat for more than a few days, you already know about what you might politely call my serial attentiveness. Theoretically, this is a blog about writing. But then, oh, yeah — there’s stuff about music. And true, I rattle on sometimes about reading, too, but isn’t that sorta [...]
Tags: History · How It Was · Looking Backward · Paying Attention · Running After My Hat · Seems to Fit · Style and Craft · Writing
Paying Attention to Setting
September 27th, 2008 · 6 Comments
A few weeks ago, I read a blog entry somewhere about the claim (phrased variously) that the setting in a given work “becomes like [or even is] a character itself.” It drove the blogger crazy, because setting and character (in his/her opinion) have so little in common. Whatever my other reactions to the rant, it got [...]
Tags: Looking Backward · Paying Attention · Seems to Fit · Style and Craft · Writing




