Brown among the green,
Mower mutters over grass.
Fall beckons the leaves.
Filed under Freeform Friday, poetry by author
The stars in heaven
know not the human folly.
That is their beauty.
Filed under Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
Beer can and bacon
firehouse chili
rasslin’ to embrace.
Filed under haiku, poetry by author
A Brit, American, Korean, Frenchman, Australian, German, Israeli, Saudi, Malaysian, Columbian, and Japanese walk into an elegant bar for a drink.
“Sorry,” says the bartender. “I can’t serve you without a Thai.”
Filed under Monday morning writing joke
There once was a hair dresser in a hard hat
who heard cannon fire, loud bass, and rumblings that
made me ask, “Is the end near?”
She said, “Oh no, but I fear
your hairdo would scare all nine lives from a cat.”
Filed under poetry by author, Workshop weekend
Oh, my poopy Outlook
Oh, what can I say?
It lives its life upsetting
me both night and day.
I tried to get if fixed so its
problems would be put away.
But masterful ministrations
won’t keep all its issues at bay.
I sit at my desk and wrestle
with one issue or the next.
Oh, my poopy Outlook,
your outlook has me vexed.
Filed under Freeform Friday, poetry by author, rhyming poetry
There once was a lady from Roane
who could have fun even while being alone.
She’d let her fingers do the walking
and cries of joy do the talking
by herself or sometimes on the phone.
Filed under Freeform Friday, limerick, poetry by author
“The true artist plays mad with his soul, labors at the very lip of the volcano, but remembers and clings to his purpose, which is as strong as the dream. He is not someone possessed, like Cassandra, but a passionate, easily tempted explorer who fully intends to get home again, like Odysseus.”
–John Gardner
Filed under Writers on writing
Day begins again,
touched by fog and memories,
refracted by sun.
Filed under Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
On her website (http://www.jenniferweiner.com), the author Jennifer Weiner has a list of advice if you want to be a novelist.
Weiner is the author of the novels The Next Best Thing, Then Came You, Fly Away Home, and others.
For books about writing to read, she writes “run, do not walk, to your local bookshop and buy Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s utterly indispensable Bird by Bird, and Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings and Ursula LeGuin’s Steering the Craft.”
I would add a few more, but that can be for another time.
A synopsis of some of the other “tools” you need are:
Books by Jennifer Weiner
2) The Miserable Love Life: “Again, a crucial ingredient for the formation of a novelist – romantic humiliation and heartbreak.”
3) Major in Liberal Arts (but not necessarily creative writing): “…a liberal arts education gives you a framework in which to place your own experiences, a context you can use to look at everything else ….”
4) Get a Job (not an MFA): She admits this one might be a bit controversial. But she says she thinks journalism “is just about the perfect career for aspiring young writers.” And if you can’t get a jog in journalism, camp counselor, cook, nanny or anything else that takes you out of your comfort zone is good.
5) Write to Please Yourself: “Tell the story that’s been growing in your heart.”
6) Get a Dog: Getting a dog can help teach you discipline and discipline is what you will need to be a writer.
7) Get Published: Submit, submit, submit. Expect to face rejection, but submit.
8) Find an Agent: This may take as much work, at least for a while, as being a writer.
9) Be a Smart Consumer: Advice on how to screen an agent that is interested in you. You don’t have to take the first one that says yes to your query letter, synopsis, finished novel.
10) Read: “Read everything. Read fiction and non-fiction, red hot best sellers and the classics you never got around to in college.”
For more details on these tools, go to http://www.jenniferweiner.com/forwriters.htm.
Filed under Writing Tip Wednesday
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