Okay – I submitted another sample of my writing to the I Write Like website. This time, I was told my writing resembles that of Mark Twain! Finally! Now I know the system is accurate! 🙂
Category: Writer’s Resources
Help on writing and the writing life. Grammar, Inspiration, Marketing & Publishing, Prompts, Writing Tips
Writing process: I Write Like
Okay, I know you’ve already done it — gone to I Write Like, the website that analyzes your writing and tells you what writer you write like. But wait — don’t do it just once. I had the site analyze several pieces of my writing — an essay, article, poem, short story and memoir excerpt. Turns out, I don’t write like one writer. I write like David Foster Wallace, Dan Brown, Kurt Vonnegut, Jack London and Cory Doctorow. What a mix! I don’t know if the results mean anything, but it’s fun to think it might.
Writing process: Competition decreases creativity
This abstract describes a scientific study on the effect of competition on creativity. The study revealed that promise of external reward decreased creativity. Something to think about.
Inspiration: Honoring the unfinished life
A poem by Richard Gilbert from the Skinner House meditation manual “In the Holy Quiet of this Hour”:
In the midst of the whirling day, in the hectic rush to be doing,
In the frantic pace of life, pause here for a moment.
Catch your breath, relax your body.
Loosen your grip on life.
Consider that our lives are always unfinished business.
Imagine that the picture of our being is never complete.
Allow your life to be a work in progress.
Do not hurry to mold the masterpiece;
Do not rush to finish the picture;
Do not be impatient to complete the drawing.
From beckoning birth to dawning death, we are in process,
And always there is more to be done.
Do not let the incompleteness weigh on your spirit.
Do not despair that imperfection marks your every day.
Do not fear that we are still in the making.
Let us instead be grateful that the world is still to be created.
Let us give thanks that we can be more than we are.
Let us celebrate the power of the incomplete,
For life is always unfinished business.
Making a difference
Writers write for a variety of reasons: to entertain, inform, annoy, show off, shock or impress. Sometimes writers write to make a positive difference. As Gandhi said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
If you could have a positive impact on the world with your writing, what would you write about?
Publishing: Should you be writing about vampires?
In her blog, literary agent Rachelle Gardner explains that book publishers are looking for another example of what people are currently reading. What do you think? Should you tailor your writing to what’s hot at the moment? Should you be writing about vampires?
Writing prompt: Bad writing can be fun
Here’s the opening paragraph of the winning entry in the detective division of this year’s Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for bad writing:
She walked into my office wearing a body that would make a man write bad checks, but in this paperless age you would first have to obtain her ABA Routing Transit Number and Account Number and then disable your own Overdraft Protection in order to do so.
Try writing an over-the-top opening to a detective novel. Hint: Have fun!
What I’m reading: The World Within
I just finished reading The World Within (Tin House Books), which includes interviews with several writers. A couple of the writers’ more pithy comments:
Claribel Alegria on writing and submitting a book manuscript: “You put it in a bottle and cork it and throw it out to sea for whoever finds it.”
Ken Kesey: “My dad told me a great thing. You never outgrow your need for compliments. And every writer needs to be stroked a little bit. It keeps us writing.”
Time to start over?
On a recent Oregon Public Broadcasting show, bas-relief artist Maria Simon said, after years of making the same kind of art, she became bored so decided to start all over again, trying a kind of art she knew nothing about. Is it time for you to start a new kind of writing, something you haven’t tried before and don’t know how to do? If so, what kind of writing might that be?
Wall scupture by Maria Simon
Writing is like putting a message in a bottle
A quote from Isabel Allende:
“You write a book and it’s like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it into the ocean. You don’t know if it will ever reach any shore. And there, you see, sometimes it falls in the hands of the right person.”
Nancy Woods 