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The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled
  • Fascinating essay by Jennifer Solheim on “polyphony and its translation” in Nathacha Appanah’s The Last Brother. (See my much less ambitious but equally enthusiastic take on The Last Brother here.)
  • Stuart Nadler reflects on the stories that did not make it into his collection, The Book of Life.
  • Another excellent writing prompt from Midge Raymond.
  • And there’s an intriguing exercise embedded within this Q&A between Deborah Treisman and David Long, too. (Long is the author of this week’s short story in The New Yorker.)
  • A routine visit to the Wordamour blog brought not only a new post to read but also a surprise gift: a lovely microreview of Quiet Americans!
  • Need some humor in your day? Check out this book trailer, featuring Julie Klam and Timothy Hutton.

    • The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • Elise Blackwell blogs about the Squaw Valley Community of Writers (and summer writing conferences more generally).
  • Reflections on the question: What is a story?
  • Really enjoyed this inspiring and instructive interview with author and editor Matt Bell.
  • A new column on The Millions is focusing on “Post-40 Bloomers,” writers “whose first books debuted when they were 40 or older.” Hurray!
  • Last week, I had the privilege of adding my voice to others paying tribute to memorable writing teachers on the Fiction Writers Review site: I wrote about the amazing Sands Hall.

    • Quotation of the Week: Roger Ebert

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    “When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thoughts fall aside and it is all just there. I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next note.”

    –Roger Ebert

    Source: “Roger Ebert on Writing: !5 Reflections from Life Itself,” TheAtlantic.com. For more about Ebert’s new memoir, see Harvey Freedenberg’s review for Bookreporter.

    Thursday Work-in-Progress: Starting a New Short Story

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4

    It has taken me a couple of months, but I think that I’m finally ready to reframe these Thursday blog posts. Instead of sharing tidbits from the post-publication phase of my story collection, Quiet Americans, I’m going to focus on new work-in-progress: fiction, poetry, book reviews, essays, and freelance assignments. Assignments, drafts, revisions, submissions, applications, and so forth. The possibilities are, as they say, limitless.

    I’m still home on medical leave this week, but I’ve had somewhat more energy, and I have been able to spend some decent chunks of time reading text longer than a magazine article and writing text longer than a tweet. My main accomplishment is a completed first draft of a new short story.

    This isn’t just any short story. This is my first commissioned short story, and the commission seems to have resulted from the “commissioner” having read Quiet Americans. I don’t want to say too much about the project, because I am superstitious. Until the story is out there for you to enjoy, I don’t want to give too many details.

    But I will say something about the process of writing this draft. (more…)