Sylvia on the Phone —I woke up today thinking “Sylvia Plath had the right idea. She left a pretty interesting legacy; A couple of kids, a bunch of famous poems, And she went out on her own terms.” Depression is like an ex-lover I can’t get rid of, She shares custody of my brain, Owning…
Category: Writers on Writing
Baggage
This is the draft of a story I wrote in almost a single breath, and then submitted to a couple of literary magazines. The rejections were polite. One said that there was not enough development of the secondary characters, particularly the father, and that showing up to a party in the wrong clothing felt too…
Writers on Writing: An Introduction
Why are there 2 rules of writing? First of all, what are the two rules of writing? You must make mistakes. You must finish SOMETHING. Ok. So why are there only two? And why those two? It’s because those two rules are just enough to put the power in the hands of the writer. That’s…
Writer’s Block: Bad Days are Easier
By Erika Grumet I’ve been staring at blank pages for days, deadlines lurking right around the corner on my calendar… wandering between in a funk because I can’t think of what to write about and Kermit-arm-flailing panic that the words are never going to come back. I don’t exactly think of it as “writer’s block”…
Real Isn’t How You Were Made, It’s Something That Happens to You
The other night, while I was trying to get some writing done, and really struggling, and had gone through all of my usual techniques for getting my head into the right place, I took a break, and stuck this little note to my keyboard. I’ve talked a lot about not being a “real writer.” I’ve…
Dismantling Writer’s Block with Friends
My younger kid has always been a big fan of Snoopy. When she was six months old, my sister gave her a stuffed Snoopy puppet, who became known as Puppy, and became her lovie. Puppy is Real to us, just like the Velveteen Rabbit is Real to his boy. Asking Puppy to help do things…
I’d Rather be Editing
When a family friend died on a hiking trail, the initial reaction was shock and sadness. But after a few weeks, this sentiment started to emerge: at least he died doing what he loved. I do think it would be a privilege to get to die doing what I love. But what would that be?…
“Literally” has Legit been Replaced
By Adam Katz One of my two or three favorite professors in college was Barbara Jeanne Fields. I want to spend all of my time saying everything I know about her, because she amazing and has an amazing life-story, but suffice the subject of today’s musing is professor’s Fields’s conservative feelings about the written word…
Whitman’s Thrush
Walt Whitman at 202 By Adam Katz I guess most school-age kids read “O Captain, my Captain” at some point. Looking back at it now, it’s a poem you have to read quickly, I think. The line “O heart! heart! heart! / O the bleeding drops of red” does not really admit slowing down and…
Erika’s Big Think #1:
Coming out of the Poetry Closet By Erika Grumet It’s a little ironic, I was the one who proposed that the topic for this month’s Big Think… should be “writing about ourselves as writers.” Of all the members of the Ivory Tower team, I’m the one who really struggles to self-identify as “a writer” and…