Author Archive
My tolerance for book blurbs has officially just bottomed out… Of course, everyone knows the “Praise for [insert title or author’s name]” in the opening pages of a book are often just cleverly manipulated snippets meant to make a novel sound better than it is. No one in his right mind would expect an “ad [...]
A few months ago, I wrote a short post called “Crimes Against the Humanities” that included a list of appalling assaults on good writing committed in a recently published bestseller. Last week, I finished editing another title in which the English language, common sense, and storytelling itself all took a brutal pummeling. There are two [...]
If you’ve ever read a how-to guide on storytelling, taken a creative writing course, or read a blog post about fiction, then you’ve probably heard the advice “Show, don’t tell.” More than likely, you’ve heard it hundreds of times, as it’s been parroted by countless writing gurus. In fact, this advice is repeated so often [...]
On Twitter today, I saw the hash tag #wordswehate flash by in my feed. @MrsPickle_, a dangerous woman who reportedly owns multiple shotguns and machetes, was responding to a tweet from @btchygirls, who run the Web site BIBS (Bitches in the Burbs), by saying that she hates the word “moist.” Other popular responses included “trousers,” [...]
In my post Tough Love for Would-Be Writers, I bitched in passing about hackneyed writing guides offering authors pat advice on how to produce film treatments rather than novels. (More on the latter complaint in my next post: The Case of Show v. Tell.) Despite my earlier rant, though, I do think there are tons [...]
5. When I was eight or nine years old, I became depressed by the realization that for the rest of my life I would never have anyone to talk to except other human beings. I wanted desperately to speak with animals or objects or anyone nonhuman who might have something interesting to say. So I [...]
3. My mother told me unambiguously: “Do not try to take it off the dresser. You’ll only end up breaking it.” “It” was a glass snow globe I’d gotten that same day. Just before bed, my mother let me hold it—but not shake it, for it was too big for my small hands—to see the [...]
While going through some old files this week, I came across a series of vignettes I wrote about ten years ago in the voice of a character called Benjamin Hermes. Each of them has to do with a childhood memory, a little moment of wonderment or loss. Over the next few days I’ll post some [...]
Speaking of the lost art of editing… The other day, a publishing friend of mine sent me the title page from a book she found on her boss’s shelf. (Look closely now. Or at least more closely than the editor did.) Also, here’s the pile of books I have to proofread this month:
After reading my post on “Translation as a Tool,” the art critic who commissioned my recent translation project sent me a link to a site created by an New York-based artist he works with. It serves as a fitting end to my short series on translation. If you let it run long enough (a couple [...]
