d There is a famous story about Gene Roddenberry’s pitch to NBC about his “wagon train to the stars” idea he ended up calling Star Trek. He told them that it would be a space adventure and that each episode would focus on some kind of deep philosophical or allegorical idea that commented on something that … Continue reading »
Tagged with writing …
Woody Allen Gives Brilliant Interview
Observe as Woody Allen spins out joke after joke, completely deadpan, from an incredibly creative mind. Oh, to have his creative spark!
R is for Retrospective
It’s been almost a year and a half since I started blogging, and even though it has had its ups and downs, here lately I’m seeing my numbers drop off slowly and steadily. It makes me wonder if this blogging thing is really all it’s cracked up to be. I won’t quit. No way. I … Continue reading »
Falkontheorie Gone?
German writer Paul Heyse (1830-1914) based his theory of Falkontheorie on the ninth tale of the fifth day of the Decamaron. The tale is about a man who sacrificed everything for the love of a woman and when he still rejected her he then sacrificed his prize falcon as well, thereby winning her heart. The idea or … Continue reading »
Killing the Narrator
When creating an outline for a novel, I think very carefully about point of view. The biggest problem I usually have is picking a point of view that works for the entire novel but also has a thematic purpose. Today’s most common point of view is third person singular which follows one character throughout the … Continue reading »
10 Questions to Spark a Plot
In the past week I have been teaching my English students how to write short stories. They began with a set of questions that caused them to think or brainstorm about what they might write about. Many of them chose to write about zombie stories, effectively writing rough drafts that ended up reading more like … Continue reading »
The Terror of the Blank Page
Last night as I watched The Walking Dead I would cycle back and forth during commercials to view the Oscar ceremonies. One phrase stood out to me as I was doing this, and it was what was said by the announcer right before Quentin Tarantino was awarded an Oscar for best original screenplay. The announcer said in … Continue reading »
Character and Background: Harmony and Conflict
Writers have strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes I feel like I have most of the latter. Often I find myself in the trench of “showing” the story to a reader, describing expressions, hinting at the setting, and trying to characterize through dialogue so much that I forget that there is a virtually untouched area for … Continue reading »
Washington Irving On Writing
This week my students are reading “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, a hilariously satirical story about a Scrooge of a man who becomes a loan shark for the Devil only to lose his soul in the process. In preparation for our study of Irving, I noted some quotes by the author that … Continue reading »
The New Podcast Is Live!
The New Podcast Is Live! We are waiting on iTunes to list us via the feed, but until then, here is the first podcast for you to listen to or download. We will release one of these ever other week. Enjoy!
