Tag: writing
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How to win at everything
If you’re walking home by yourself in the dark, and get cat-called by a group of men, stop. Place one hand against your ear like you’re talking into a small microphone, and say: “We got him. Send in backup.” Watch them scatter. Do you have a problem with people crowding the poles on the subway?…
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“Yeah, um, I don’t like to read.”
Some people might think I’m odd, but one of the first questions I might ask a stranger is what she or he is reading.
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Excerpt from a short story that might never come to life
On violence Growing up, Rebecca’s family settled things court style with her mother presiding as the impartial judge. Who had whose boyfriend over for too long? Mary. Who stole Marcia’s blouse? Mary or April. Who gets the car this Friday night? Rebecca. Her father, being second in power, was required to be at these meetings, but he would sit with his hands folded on his lap, watching…
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An editor’s perspective on writing
I went to a brown bag lunch the other day, and it was led by Colin Harrison, the Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at Scribner. Before joining Scribner, he was the deputy editor for Harper’s Magazine. He’s an accomplished novelist but edits mostly nonfiction because he enjoys the challenge, the journey that he takes with the…
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Letters to myself
A week before graduation (wow, six months ago?), a creative writing professor asked us to write letters to send to ourselves. I’d gotten mine in September, and it’s taped to the wall, right above my writing desk. Whenever I hit a writer’s block, I look up from my computer screen and stare at this letter.…
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In search of a writing community
I don’t want writing to prevent me from meeting people; I decided that writing should help me meet people.
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Someday, what we did will matter.
Someday, what we did will matter. During one of Fairfield University’s Senior Week events, I was asked to write a six-word story to summarize my experience at Fairfield University. So I harnessed my budding poetic powers, which I acquired after taking a class with Professor Carol Ann Davis, and this was the result. I wonder what Hemingway would think of…
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A literary semester
It’s my last semester at Fairfield, so I thought I should take all the classes that I’ve been wanting to take. Why not? Advanced Portfolio Workshop Led by former Crazyhorse editor, Carol Ann Davis, this class is a capstone course for creative writing majors. By the end of this course we are supposed to have…
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This is what I listen to when I feel discouraged as a writer
Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo. Some great words about storytelling from Ira Glass, host and producer of “This American Life.” I think David also did a wonderful job with translating the audio into visuals.
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What I learned from reading and writing fanfiction
Once upon a time, I avidly read fanfiction. To those unfamiliar with fanfiction, scholar Bronwen Thomas best describes it as “stories produced by fans based on plot lines and characters from either a single source text or else a “canon” of works; these fan-created narratives often take the pre-existing storyworld in a new, sometimes bizarre, direction.”…
Loan Le 