A summer event that is worth your attention: Mark Baumer is currently walking across America. He started from Tybee Island, Georgia and has been walking since May 10th. Right now he is somewhere in the middle of Texas. The trip begins here. One of Mark’s many observations: “I found some cheese, looked at it, touched [...]
Entries Tagged as 'writers’ habits'
On “Themes”
April 30th, 2010 1 Comment
There’s a running joke in my writing group that I only write stories about ambiguous relationships — though calling it a joke is a little misleading, as it sort of implies there’s no element of truth to it when in fact ambiguous relationships crop up in my fiction all the time. It’s something I’ve long [...]
Tags: Andrew · writers' habits · writing
Recipe for a Sustainable Writing Group
March 18th, 2010 4 Comments
Now that I’ve graduated from Emerson and possess an illustrious MFA degree (seriously, I sleep with the diploma holder under my pillow), I’m all set, right? Book deals come rolling on in… Not so fast, sadly. I’ve encountered several friends (MFA and MA alums alike) who are battling the same nefarious syndrome as me: Not [...]
Tags: emerson alums · getting published · kim · writers' habits · writing groups
On “Being A Writer”
January 7th, 2010 1 Comment
Since Joe asked, the list of things I did while at home for the holidays was pretty much the same as his, except substitute “drinking” and “shopping” for “thinking” and “playing Flash games”. But if that seems to put me in agreement with him about the relative weight writing should occupy in a “writer’s” life, [...]
Tags: Andrew · writers · writers' habits
How I Spent My Winter Break “Not Being A Writer”
January 5th, 2010 2 Comments
I’ve heard it said that writers should need to write, and not just want to like any amateur with an idea and a blog. In fact Bukowski has a nice poem espousing that very idea. But here’s the thing: I think that idea is a bunch of crap put forth by pretentious assholes like Bukowski [...]
Tags: blogs · break · Bukowski · Emerson · Joe · Winter · writers' habits · writing
On Torture
November 16th, 2009 No Comments
So this is it: the home stretch. A little over a week from today, I will be handing in my thesis to my committee — and so I thought it might be appropriate, at this point, to share my process, with those who are curious, and my misery with those who currently share it.
Tags: Andrew · Emerson College WLP Department · writers' habits · writing process
Emerson Caffeine Confidential: Kim Reviews Coffee
September 3rd, 2009 4 Comments
After three years and kind of a ridiculous amount of coffee-drinking experience at and around Emerson, I’ve decided to share my jittery wisdom with all of the new, soon-to-be caffeinated writing and publishing students. So below is Kim’s Exclusive Guide to Coffee, within a 10-15 minute walk from Emerson. Here are the criteria of evaluation: [...]
Tags: Boston Confidential · cafes · coffee · Emerson College WLP Department · kim · writers' habits
Writing Machines
August 9th, 2009 3 Comments
In On Writing, Stephen King’s “memoir of the craft,” he recommends that aspiring authors write 1000 words per day, in addition to reading “a lot.” A recent New Yorker article says of Joyce Carol Oates, “it has been said that, at one point in her career, she wrote forty pages of fiction every day…”
Tags: Brooks · John Hawkes · Joyce Carol Oates · Trollope · writers' habits · writing process
On Outlets
July 29th, 2009 No Comments
Patrick’s post about alternative creative outlets the other day inspired me to brush off my old hobbyhorse and extol the virtues of improvisation. Of course, I’m sure you’ve all seen those godawful ads that Improv Asylum has had on the T for the past several decades, and I don’t doubt that improv is indeed very [...]
Tags: Andrew · writers' habits
You Put Down the Pen and Pick Up What?
July 23rd, 2009 1 Comment
Writers are creative people, right? I mean, that’s what writing is, creating. I’m wondering, though, what are you creating when you’re not writing? As for me, I’m a doodler first. I began drawing and painting many years before I ever decided to write anything, so when I need a break from writing, that’s one of [...]
Tags: patrick · writers · writers' habits