As a writing exercise, I often try to describe random objects or scenes that I see in my daily life. I don't type them out--just in my mind. But I try to come up with the words to put exactly what I'm looking at right then into someone else's head. How do I get across …
Predator in pathetic guise
I'm a bit more than halfway through Lolita, and am beginning to feel disturbed and disgusted. A slow, sickening feeling has been building for a while, and finally made me realize that Humbert is not a pathetic loser, but a cold predator. He is telling his story with the object of gaining sympathy. To do this …
write six billion stories
If you were an immortal, how many stories could you write before you got bored of the whole idea of stories? I can't imagine ever getting tired of making stuff up... but I suppose there must be a limit. Every thing that has ever happened, never happened, can't happen, or must happen--all are stories. How, with …
Don’t tell me what I already know
There are two ways to reveal a surprise or secret you've been hinting at in a story. Well, I'm sure there's more than two but let's be black and white for a minute. There's a good way, and a bad way. There's a way that makes your reader smile and say 'ah, yes I suspected that' …
Obsession
Since the current thing I'm working on has a lot to do with obsession, I was recommended to read Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov. I got the audible version and so far am impressed by both the writing and the reading of it (narration by Jeremy Irons). It's always been interesting to me how people justify their …
Jonas David 