Archive for August 2021
Let’s Make a Scene
When children misbehave in public, parents often tell them, “Don’t make a scene.” What an unfortunate reprimand for any child who one day might be a writer, particularly if we’re prose writers. We spend our days making scenes on the page. I want to get down to basics in this post; I want to illustrate…
Read MoreRound Characters
As some of you know, Cathy and I have two raised beds in a community garden. The garden is along a busy road and highly visible. This may explain, at least in part, why it’s tempting for someone to steal vegetables. No one has taken anything from our beds, perhaps because they’re at the rear…
Read MoreHope and Love: A Writer’s Choice
Each year, in August, I finish teaching a workshop at the Vermont College of Fine Arts Writers’ Conference and then turn my attention to a new school year at Ohio State University. For teachers and students, hope springs eternal in autumn. A new academic year; a new beginning. Writing is an act of faith and…
Read MoreAn August Assortment: One Writer’s Musings
Here we are in August, a time of transition. Summer is lumbering toward autumn like an old dog circling before finding a place to lie down and rest. Cooler days are ahead; we just don’t know exactly when they’ll arrive. These times of pause before transition are suspenseful in a way. Maybe we’re tired of…
Read MoreRevision by Indirection
Summers, when I was a teenager, my father made me work in our vegetable garden. I would have rather been doing anything else. Running a tiller, hoeing around plants, hilling potatoes—none of it was much fun. Instead, it was sweat and dirt and what seemed like endless trips up and down the rows. My father…
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