My first creative writing class got off to a cracking start. We took as our starting point, the question “why do I write.” The students spent 10 minutes writing why they write. I invited them to share afterwards and three students articulated their motives for writing, which ranged from the desire to make a difference […]
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Short story Sundays
I’ve always felt compelled to write fiction. I’ve started and shelved at least three bad novels. Believe me, they needed to be shelved. At about a third of the way into each of these doomed creations, the idea of spending hours just making things up, struck panic to my core. “These are your busy years”, […]
Write your short story in 6 weeks: Kurt Vonnegut’s rules for “Creative Writing 101″
In case you can’t make my 6 week course, here’s Kurt Vonnegut’s rules for creative writing penned in the introduction to his short fiction collection: Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction. 1/Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. 2/ Give […]
Judith Butler on the Value of Reading & the Humanities
Philosopher Judith Butler on the Value of Reading & the Humanities: McGill Commencement Address by Maria Popova “We lose ourselves in what we read, only to return to ourselves, transformed and part of a more expansive world.” Joining the year’s crop of notable graduation speeches — including Debbie Millman on courage and the creative life, […]
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