I don’t know if this is a universal experience, but back when I was in the early years of high school I remember having to dismantle various fragments of literature and scrounge in their remnants for “literary elements.” This term was a loose euphemism for things like metaphors, similes, etc. – basically any concept that could be easily defined and tested on the state Regent exam. As ‘teach explained it, if the selected passage we were given employed enough of these syntactical devices, it must be considered advanced literature. I mean, come on, just look at that enjambment!
I don’t know though. I mean, what if you brought this exercise to bear on something other than fragments of Macbeth? How about, oh, Nas’s seminal rap album Illmatic (1994). Would it past the test? Is it “literature”?
At seven am every morning, I pop out of bed and drink a freshly squeezed orange juice and eat a zucchini frittata. Before I do any errands or school work, I spend three hours working on the latest chapter of my book. I eat lunch outside while reading volume two of Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago.” In the afternoons, I revise what I wrote the week prior. I have a light dinner and then get back to reading Solzhenitsyn. Before bed, I write in my journal for an hour and keep the pen and notebook on my bedside table in case I have interesting dreams or book ideas in the middle of the night.
Or not.
I’m a graduate student. I have two jobs. I have a forty-five minute commute through New York City almost every morning. I’m usually rushing. I’m not really a morning person. Sometimes I get headaches from staring at my computer all day and I would rather cook a fun dinner when I get home than write anything. I do a lot of writing for school and for my jobs, but I’m not always good at prioritizing my own writing projects.
Scottish comedian and writer Al Kennedy had a piece up at The Guardian earlier this month about a day in the life of a writer:
…I usually compare my life to those of so many other novelists who are (perhaps inaccurately) quoted as saying they “always complete the final draft in my suite at the Carlyle” or “my writing room faces the smaller of our lakes and has a delightfully inspiring view across the Chilterns/Dartmoor/the Swiss Alps/Dollis Hill” or “I always get up at 4am, sip my organic mint tea – dew-kissed leaves fresh from the sunken garden – and then five or six thousand words tumble forth before Freddie and Timmy and the dogs wake up and I have to oversee Marta while she makes them breakfast – she’s from the Philippines and simply doesn’t understand toast” and so forth.
It’s mostly a spoof piece but she manages to be refreshingly realistic. We’re not all going to be able to wake up to the sunrise at our lakeside writers retreat. We’re going to have gigs and side jobs. We’re going to be grumpy in the mornings. We’re going to not want to write all the time, but we’ll force ourselves to because that’s our calling.
What would my own ideal daily schedule look like? Here’s a non-ironic fantasy: Read more »
Out of personal interest, I’ve been keeping a running list of all novels entitled The [ ]’s Wife. I tend to think the titles are unimaginative, patriarchal, and, in the cases of books like The Greek Tycoon’s Unexpected Wife, a little absurd. However, they’re also apparently ubiquitous, as my list is now about 100 titles and counting. I thought I would share them with you: Read more »
J. D. Salinger became one of our most-beloved literary hermits. And Steig Larsson is holding strong on The New York Times Bestseller List six years after his death. Though I cannot mathematically prove that hibernation/extreme unavailability makes you an instant bestseller, it does seem that it doesn’t hurt to be either A.) extremely accessible a la Maureen Johnson or B.) extremely inaccessible, like Jane Austen. (She might not have been a hermit in her day, but if she had a dollar for every time she was referenced today…)
So for those aspiring writers that would prefer to be extremely inaccessible, as opposed to the alternative, here are ten easy steps to hide from today’s world: Read more »
Whether or not Twitter remains a popular tool or a passing phase, it is still a useful instrument for writers to use to connect with their fans, record passing thoughts, and try out new material. Below is a list of five writers who surely would have made good use of the social media tool if given the chance, and here’s what they might be Tweeting.
Charles Dickens: Freelance writers in this day and age use Twitter to drive readers to their work. Very quick to realize the opportunities and the audiences created by new media, Dickens would surely overtweet. But his dedication to his fans would keep his feed interesting.
“@bookbench pls tell yr readers to keep their fingers crossed for the fate of little Nell and DM me with any concerns regarding her outcome”
What does a young writer look like to you? Conjure up an image in your mind. What do you see? Thick black glasses? A fuzzy sweater, holes conveniently poked near the ends of the sleeves for easy thumb access? A hunched, pale little person, jittery from too much coffee at the temp agency where they work, scuttling around and biding their time until they publish some brilliant collection of stories that they’ve slaved over, neat, symmetrical slices of their sad, sad life? Okay great, perfect. Now take that poor myopic sap and imagine them racing down the basketball court like a wild tiger – they’re on a fast break, they take off at the foul line, flying through the air, twisting and soaring until they throw down a monstrous, two-handed jam, shattering the backboard into a million crystal fragments. Completely free and uninhibited they stand there beneath the mangled hoop, screaming with primal fury, as the glass rain trickles down from above. Read more »
I was inspired by Jacket Copy’s classic literature web movie and so put together one of my own using the simple (and free) online animated moviemaking tool xtranormal. Below is a video featuring part of a scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet–with the titular characters as robots. Xtranormal only has sterile, computer-generated voices to provide the dialogue, but in this context I’m thinking it kind of works.
After the jump, watch Jacket Copy’s Pride and Prejudice web video. Read more »
Unfortunately, our favorite literary characters don’t always shack up with the perfect mates. So, in honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a list of hypothetical couples that should make any dedicated reader swoon. Read more »
Now that the first season of MTV’s Jersey Shore is over, the cast members will have some free time on their hands. The following is a list of book recommendations for the guidos and guidettes to digest in between their gelling, juicing, and tanning.
Ed. Note: We got tired of all the ‘best-of’ lists of the past decade. So we had writer-filmmaker D.W. Lichtenberg write a best-of list of the next decade. Enjoy.
Recently, I invented a time machine. I traveled into the future for the sole purpose of seeing every movie that will be released in the coming decade. That way, I could be the first person to write a “best of the decade” movie list. And don’t worry, I didn’t cheat by traveling further into the future and copying everyone else’s top ten. But I do believe that this list will alter the future, and it’s because of this list that some of these movies will soon exist. Read more »
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Now that the first season of MTV’s Jersey Shore is over, the cast members will have some free time on their hands. The following is a list of book recommendations for the guidos and guidettes to digest in between their gelling, juicing, and tanning.
