Admitting defeat

Well... I must embarrassingly resign myself as uncultured, and impatient. Swan's Way by Marcel Proust is just too boring for me to continue. I think I am missing something, because I don't understand the draw. It's not that I can't handle writing without a narrative, since I loved The Peregrine... but, the lack of narrative …

A different brain

I was out at a karaoke bar recently and someone sang 'What It's Like' by Everlast. This somewhat cheesy, quintessentially 90's song came out when I was a teen, and I've always known all the words but somehow I've never really heard them before. Or maybe it's that, being older and having a bit of …

Words to Control + F

When in the process of splashing out words for a new story, we all find ourselves writing words we don't need, repeating words, and being hacks in general. I've composed a list of these 'filler' words that I've found most often in my own work. Search for, and delete! Very: Delete any that aren't in …

Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders

Love, death, ghosts, and history. What a sad, funny, interesting and heart-squeezing novel. From Wikipedia: Many years ago, during a visit to Washington DC, my wife's cousin pointed out to us a crypt on a hill and mentioned that, in 1862, while Abraham Lincoln was president, his beloved son, Willie, died, and was temporarily interred …

Proust: Rambling thoughts, or more?

I've started listening to my first Proust, and it's not very engaging. It is interesting though. Mainly I'm thinking "this guy is just going on about inane memories that can have no importance to anyone other than himself, and yet this is a classic." I think that goes to show that you really can write …