Category: writing

Of course you don’t. Based on the blogosphere, it must not be taught in schools anymore.

If you are one who remembers grammar class, this is great: Diagramming the Preamble to the US Constitution. (via Boing Boing)

If not, visit Grammar Girl: Link.

Read this from AdPulp:

Hugh Macleod is not part of the Facebook-hating mob… but he does like this critical Guardian piece on the politics behind the company.

Investigative journalist, Tom Hodgkinson, says he hates Facebook in his lead. He then delves into a deep background check on the money men behind the soc net.

Link.

An interesting report regarding Facebook. But the journalism is questionable. When a journalist expresses bias before “objectively” reporting the story two things occur. One, the integrity of the investigation is compromised due to the predetermined objective of the journalist. Two, by framing the story as an anti-Facebook article, the journalist sets the reader up for biased propaganda that is supposed to convince the reader to hate Facebook. And that is not journalism. It is a well researched essay at best or simply an op-ed piece.

Instead of the romanticized “how do you write?” maybe the question should be what do you write? Or, maybe, how well do you write?

I suspect, that a publisher doesn’t give a flying flip how one writes as long as it is well written and it moves (i.e. sells) magazines, books, or what ever tool is used provide literary content of merit.

For my Write Stuff post I’ve been sharing what I learned during a 5-week writing course. Later I will explore what I gleaned from a 1-week writers residency.

This week’s piece, Rain intensifies the drama of the question, continues the story.

Last week’s post, Where does rain come from?, evoked the following responses:

One of the things that I don’t like about taking classes… is the people who fall over themselves to impress the instructor and can’t follow instructions. —Finn

I believe that the majority of people there are just like you – they simply want to learn the ins and outs of the craft and ultimately become better writers…. At any rate, have more confidence in your writing abilities because… judging by what you’ve contributed to this blog so far, you are well on your way to becoming one of the greats. —Karen

I’m sure that your essay didn’t seem silly… the… polished pieces are jumping ahead of the process and undermining your teacher’s efforts. —Tammi

Currently, I am in the middle of an intense writing class. When I came across this article (via Boing Boing [Link]) this morning I was struck by this well crafted introduction:

I didn’t want to go back.

When I began reporting from Iraq in 2002, I was still a wild and somewhat naïve twenty-four-year-old kid. Five years later, I was battle-weary. I had been there longer than the American military and had kept returning long after most members of the “coalition of the willing” had pulled out. Iraq had become my initiation, my rite of passage, but instead of granting me a new sense of myself and a new identity, Iraq had become my identity. Without Iraq, I was nothing. Just another photographer hanging around New York. In Iraq, I had a purpose, a mission; I felt important.

Read the rest here [Link].

As far as a personal essay goes, the first sentence gets the reader into the story by asking “why” and presents an authentic voice that hooks the reader into the story.

For some reason the term “economics” really spooks writers into silence. Why?

Weekly I post something on Write Stuff about writing or the craft of writing or anything relating to the writing process. I began a series on why writing contests are bad business for both writers and publishers. Here’s part one, two, and three.

The premise is this: economics is the study of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Poets and writers produce literature that is distributed via publishers and booksellers to readers, book buyers, librarians.

I began the series of posts as a way to study what I do and why I am continually disappointed in writing contests and the works that win writing contests. For example, the Walt Whitman Award, presented by the Academy of American Poets (of which I am a member), is considered a prestigious contest. The Academy has published many fine poets. However, much of what wins and is published is considered informal personal narrative. That’s fine. It is a dominant form in America. But, as I discussed with a fellow poet at the Flood Fine Art Center poetry reading last week, it isn’t new–it’s the same tired narrative lyric every other professional poet is turning out. It’s like poetry in America is stuck in a rut and it can’t get out. Tony Tost’s Invisible Bride is one Walt Whitman Award winner that I recall in recent times that really pushed the vehicle of poetry in a new direction. But I’ll explore that more in this week’s Write Stuff post.

I’m not sure (because I’ve received minimal comments on the topic) if I’ve either struck a nerve with the folks at Write Stuff (they run a writing contest) or I’m being completely obtuse. What do you think?

Awhile ago this essay was published in an obscure local paper. I didn’t think it made much of a difference in anyone’s life. Then one day a blogger emailed a reply that included these encouraging words:

“You are very right when you say we don’t have to have it all figured out and ourselves all neatly put together.”

A month later another reader emailed me these kind words:

“I appreciate what you wrote… it is encouraging to know that this is not an abnormal way to feel…”

It is nice to know a couple people were moved enough to respond to something I wrote–a blessing indeed. Then I came across a link to my essay from a blog that promotes a book titled Get Up Off Your Knees. One of the books editors, Beth Maynard, writes that

“it’s a nice piece of writing…”

And this encourages me to finish an essay I don’t want to write in a paper that many people overlook and I wonder why I should keep writing–why keep typing late into the night with the glow of the laptop screen guiding me to explore inner thoughts, doubts, questions of reality and spirituality and ritual.

Blue Sky Asheville published a Christmas essay I wrote and Wander published a poem.