http://writeorflight.com A blog about writers, writing and filling life with clever words. Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:41:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I read a statistic the other day that 60% of blogs are abandoned within the first month. This one was headed down that ignoble path, so I decided to give it a little reprieve with a brief post. There is nothing to distinguish a writer from someone who is not a ... http://writeorflight.com/2009/08/writing-daily/ Another legend of American literature died yesterday. John Updike, one of the generation of great writers who helped shape the entire genre of voice in our relatively young writing culture, lost his battle with lung cancer at the age of 76. There are any number of people more suited to write ... http://writeorflight.com/2009/01/remembering-john-updike/ Mental Floss had a great article on six open letters that had a huge impact on the world. MLK's Letter from a Birminham Jail is a given, but I also have to give much credit to the Letter on Corpulance... mostly because I love the word corpulance. Now that letter writing is ... http://writeorflight.com/2009/01/the-power-of-letters-to-change-the-world/ That's a good one. I think it comes up every year. Maybe aspiring writers are inclined to be procrastinators more than other types of people, like firefighters (that would be terrible wouldn't it?) New Year's resolutions are great for me, becuase they don't give me one month or so to set out ... http://writeorflight.com/2009/01/new-years-resolutions-write-more/ Wallace Stevens had every reason to not be poetic. He went to law school because his dad told him to and then he worked in insurance. Those two lifestyles jostle around in my brain for the distinction of least artistic professions I can imagine (such that it writers often us ... http://writeorflight.com/2008/10/poetry-can-have-any-job/ Maybe the difference between a novella and a novel isn't that clear to you. How short is a short story before it's too short and has to be called something else --shorter? These questions don't really need hard and fast answers. No one likes being pigeonholed, after all. But that doesn't ... http://writeorflight.com/2008/10/standard-lengths-of-different-forms-of-fiction/ I sometimes think the fear of criticism is my biggest obstacle to writing. It's a terrible dilemma: I want people to read my work, but I'm worried that when they do they will realize my flaws and mock me endlessly for them. I doubt I am alone in that fear. But a ... http://writeorflight.com/2008/10/teddy-roosevelt-has-medicince-for-the-fear-of-the-critic/ I lived in Houston for large, non-consecutive portions of my life. I've got lots of friends and loved ones there right now. I'm exceedingly thankful that they all made it through the storm unharmed, with their homes (mostly) intact. Unfortuantly, not everyone was so lucky. I've been following the news closely, and ... http://writeorflight.com/2008/09/hurricane-ikes-aftermath-help-h-town-out/ [caption id="attachment_37" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A notebook is a writer's best friend"][/caption] I have a poet friend who was told me once that ideas are ours only for so long. If we don't use them, our muse takes them to someone else. Then we forget about them until we read them in ... http://writeorflight.com/2008/09/keeping-a-writer-notebook/ I've been giving some thought to the struggles a writer faces throughout the process of writing. The frustration of the blank page, writer's block, ideas with a beginning and no end, unrealistic dialogue...these can serve as a real downer, bruising a writer's already fragile sense of confidence. A ... http://writeorflight.com/2008/09/just-do-it/