November 2009
11 posts
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"Aren't you afraid the humiliation of rejection...
Elizabeth Gilbert at TED, talking about the fear that lingers behind the nagging need to write, the curious nature of genius and what happens when you keep showing up to do your job. Bonus points for using Tom Waits as a positive role model.
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NaNoWriMo: Back on the horse
After taking a few days off post-TEDx, I’m back on-course, at 13, 339 words. And today is not yet over (though the finale of Mad Men looms, with a giant time-sucking sound.)
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MICA's Brown Center was a great venue for TEDx...
I’ve driven past, or under it nearly a hundred times, but today was the first time I had the opportunity to spend time inside The Brown Center, the glass-curtained building with the thrusting overhang that opened on the MICA campus a few years back. All I can say is: Wow. Modern spaces can often be cold and odd and, while The Brown Center is certainly quirky, it fits in nicely on...
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Tom Stoppard on writing, via Scott Simon at...
It had been years since I’d thought of this beautiful passage about writing until I heard Scott Simon quote it this morning at TEDx MidAtlantic. It comes from the amazing play The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard: “Words… They’re innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across...
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NaNoWriMo inspiration: Laura Lippman
Maybe it’s because we used to work for the same newspaper. Or maybe it’s because she nails the details of Baltimore in her books. Or maybe it’s because the woman can write the hell out of a book and leave you wondering how she does it. Whatever, I’m a fanboy, a homer. So here’s summa Baltimore’s pride and joy, Laura Lippman.
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"He's a writer looking for inspiration..."
Who remembers this great movie about finding the writer’s muse?
It's a Mad Men world
Here’s a not-quite-so-random thought following last night’s penultimate episode of Season 3 of Mad Men: What if the next episode jumps as far forward in the timeline as is normally reserved for a new season? Why? Last night’s episode was both a hard ending (Don, crushed and defeated) and a beginning (The real 1960s that got underway following the death of a president). But the...
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NaNoWriMo: Read this now
Merlin Mann on “The Top … Habits of Amazing Writers.”
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In which Mr. Nabokov dissembles while moving to...
Somehow I’ve gotten this far in life without hearing Vladimir Nabokov’s voice or seeing him move. Oddly cartoonlike for such a wickedly good writer. I love how he’s clearly enjoying the hell out of himself here.
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NaNoWriMo Progress, Day One
I’m almost at exactly the daily count that I need to hit if I’m going to be on track for NaNoWriMo, but I’m only about 1/3 of the way toward my Day One goal of 5,000 words. I figure that’ll be far enough in to tell whether this idea has some momentum and, if so, to give me a little buffer should things slow down as I’m told they do in week two. UPDATE: Finished at...
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"It's all in your head, and you take your head...
Nick Hornby, on writing. Thanks, PBS, for the non-embeddable clip. Skip to 5:30 to get the the good bits.