Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia

What does a zipper have in common with a buzz saw? Or flip-flops with a tuk-tuk? (A tuk-tuk was the auto rickshaw we rode in Bangkok last fall. Not the best transport in a traffic-congested city. Noise clogged the scenic view. And sucking up fumes amidst the taxis,...
Kill Your Darlings

Kill Your Darlings

“Kill your darlings” is literary gospel, a ubiquitous phrase that commands action upon one’s prose. Cut, kill, slash, rewrite. Trim the superfluous flab. Popularized in novel and screenwriting guides in the ’90s, it’s been ascribed to...
Narrative Arc

Narrative Arc

Spoiler alert: this post is a Rambler with no Narrative Arc. Narrative Arc is not like Noah’s Ark, a Biblical tale with a narrative arc, if there ever was one. Imagine it: all of the critters of the world, cruising 2×2. My husband are going to cruise, just...
The Seven Year Pen

The Seven Year Pen

So… I had a Big Birthday. Huge number. Big, almighty geez. How it affected me is unclear – to discover the scope of my thoughts, perspectives, and feelings is a reason to write, as you know. The process is amusing, not constraining. It keeps me off the...
Hemingway’s Bar

Hemingway’s Bar

Hemingway’s Bar. I recall the joy, my enthralled awe as I plunked my butt on a stool at Hemingway’s Bar in Paris. It was long before I set my intention to write a book, yet I succumbed to the immediate allure, the pretense of sitting in his place. Heady...