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, [...]
Entries Tagged as '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: overall [...]
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 useful [...]
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
On Travel
July 3rd, 2009 2 Comments
So Kim has asked us this week to write about Travel, somehow, seeing as a lot of people, you know, travel in July. And I’ve been at a bit of a loss because, though I travel a lot, I don’t really think of it as all that literary an endeavour — my favourite piece of [...]
Tags: Andrew · writers' habits · writing process
Recommended Reading (according to Neil Gaiman and some others)
June 11th, 2009 No Comments
I don’t really like to re-post things from around the internet unless it’s particularly interesting, and I this counts in my opinion, plus it continues our theme of summer reading. Last week, Salon.com asked a bunch of authors what they were reading and what they would recommend. Even though some of the books/subject mentioned don’t [...]
Tags: literary taste · patrick · reading · reading habits · Summer Reading Month · writers · writers' habits
On Self-Loathing
June 10th, 2009 1 Comment
It’s not that unusual, I don’t think, for writers to hate their own writing — I know I look back on stuff I produced even a few months ago, sometimes, and cringe at how bad it sounds, and from various conversations I’ve had with other members of the program here I don’t think I’m alone.
What [...]
Tags: Andrew · writers' habits · writing process
