by Joe Bunting |
About a quarter of the way through the book I stopped reading. Did she really just do that? I thought. Here is the paragraph that struck me:
The crusted pan that baked the chocolate-melt bars slides off the tower of bowls crashes to the floor. Pick it up and watch it sink into sink.
I found that last part, “sink into sink,” open-your-mouth-and-furrow-your-brow fascinating. Not because she plays with the double meaning of sink, but because she drops her article.
Thus begins Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts, a book about how to live fully, experience more joy; about how to be thankful, even for the mundane, even for the tragedies. You don’t forget stories, and if you can prove your point with stories, you can teach people more effectively than if you just told them what to do.
by Joe Bunting |
Steven Pressfield says he can’t read authors with strong voices anymore (he cites Philip Roth) because they rub off on him. That’s fine for Steve, but for us fledgling writers, those voices are like calcium supplements. They make our bones strong.
Lately, I’ve been reading Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life. This is a problem because Annie Dillard has a unique and beautiful voice, and without meaning to, I stole it. I’m slightly embarrassed about it, so keep it on the DL.
by Joe Bunting |
When my English Literature professor, Marilyn McEntyre, told us Hemingway would write all day in small Parisian cafes and, afterward, take his lunch to the Musee du Luxembourg where he would look at Cezannes, it transformed how I looked at authors—and writing, for that matter—forever.
by Joe Bunting |
Can non-fiction writers borrow techniques from poets to set their writing apart?
Last night, I finished Rob Bell’s explosive and polarizing book about heaven and hell, Love Wins. While I don’t want to review or comment on a book that has been reviewed and commented on en extrema, I do want to make some observations as a writer.
