by Joe Bunting |
In allegiance to Stephen King’s writerly maxim, “The only requirement is the ability to remember every scar,” I’m considering writing a new series of stories about my father’s five year struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrom.
I was ten when my father had to quit work go on disability. His body was hurting all the time and he couldn’t think he was so tired. Ten is an age you need a father, but for five years he was largely absent, both physically and mentally. My mom was preoccupied and stressed bearing our family’s financial burdens. I went through the first, confusing years as a teenager all but alone.
But the question is: should I write the stories from this period of my life as non-fiction or channel them into my fiction?
by Joe Bunting |
As a writers, you are sensitive to words. After all, they’re your currency. Even when you’re taking a break to watch TV, you may unconsciously be evaluating—with disdain or grudging admiration—the words you encounter. Developing sensitivity for lazy language can help you assuage any lingering guilt for taking breaks, especially with TV shows.
Admittedly a rationale for marathon TV watching, I discovered that television shows can teach valuable lessons in our writing, especially to spot those standard scripted sentences like, “I want my lawyer,” “Crash cart, STAT, and “We need to talk.” Once we recognize the penchant for too-easy language, we can learn from and avoid it in our writing.
Here I describe two types of lazy language and suggest lessons we can learn from them and remedies to apply in your own work.
by Joe Bunting |
I recently finished reading Haruki Murakami’s trilogy 1Q84, and it left me with mixed feelings. If you’re to compare any of his previous novels to 1Q84, you’ll be quite surprised. It’s different from the familiar Murakami topics, and his tone and voice have changed in this work too.
Avoiding a description of the content and putting personal preferences aside, there is much to be learned from the Japanese master’s latest work (even though he lost the Nobel race). So here are the lessons I’ve pulled out:
by Joe Bunting |
I wrote this in fifteen minutes.
How fast can you write? Most new writers slog over their writing. They spend minutes writing a single sentence. They stare at the screen, composing sentences in their heads. Yes, some pros do that too, but as a group, professional writers write fast (or at least faster than you).
by Joe Bunting |
Serialized novels are gaining popularity, both in the mass market and literary worlds.
Margaret Atwood is in the middle of her sci-fi novel Positron which is available for free on Byliner. (I read the first Episode. It was very fun!). Alexander McCall Smith, of The Ladies #1 Detective Agency fame, published his serial 44 Scotland Street in the Edinburugh newspaper The Scotsman a few years ago. (I read it much later, and enjoyed it immensely.) And Sean Platt and David Wright’s series, Yesterday’s Gone, was created by two well known writer’s in the blogging world who leverage their platforms to publish their fiction.
However, what most people don’t realize is that serialized novels have a long history, at least that’s what Yael Goldstein Love of Plymtpon Publishing says.
by Joe Bunting |
Is your writing fuelled by everyday life and experiences or by imagination? Of course, these two are often mixed together; yet, you probably draw more from one than the other. You may be the type of person who eavesdrops in coffee shops and later writers stories.
You may be shut down at home, pulled into a parallel world of other planets, creatures and sixth and seventh senses.
