Let’s explicate that piece of Carson McCullers dialog. There’s tons to learn from it, but today we’ll just focus on conflicting agendas and how she rings such a realistic, poignant note by keeping her characters firmly and clearly grounded in their separate agendas. Doctor Copeland: “I will not be hurried…. Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Explicating the gnat”
Category: Art & Craft of Fiction magazine
Pulp Rag: Weighing point-of-view techniques
So let’s talk some more about Point-Of-View. Because this is quite a sticky widget. The simplest, commonest, most straight-forward POV is third-person limited. And there’s a really good reason for this. Because it WORKS. Once upon a time it was first-person limited. However, first-person got kind of beat to death… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Weighing point-of-view techniques”
Pulp Rag: Hunting the lonely heart with Carson McCullers
The actual writing is what you live for. —Raymond Chandler Let’s talk about plotting and Point-Of-View. Carson McCullers was only twenty-three when she published The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, her classic story of the fragility of human connection—nearly a child prodigy. Within the amorphous struggle to understand life, as… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Hunting the lonely heart with Carson McCullers”
Pulp Rag: Messing with each other’s head: dialog in action
Shall we see if I can get through a whole post about dialog talking about. . .dialog? I follow Twitter. Not enough, apparently, to see everything that goes by, because lots of people use it as a mirror they glance into constantly throughout the day assuming—I guess—the rest of us… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Messing with each other’s head: dialog in action”
Pulp Rag: Celebrating Chaos Day
I’m starting a children’s book from scratch today. And, in spite of what I said about NaNoWriMo, I have about three weeks to write it. Am I MAD? It sounds even worse when I elaborate: I do this every year. . . Read the full essay on Pulp Rag.
Pulp Rag: Typing a novel
Let’s talk about NaNoWriMo today. Because lots of people are confused about what it’s for. NaNoWriMo is not about getting you a novel to sell. It’s not. . . Read the full essay on Pulp Rag.
Linking to the Red Room
Today we’re linking to the Red Room—specifically to an interview Andy Ross, past-owner of Cody’s Bookstore in Berkeley, did with Alan Rinzler, Executive Director of the San Francisco Jossey-Bass imprint of Wiley and Sons and an independent editor. Andy has a previous interview with Alan, too. I had lunch with… Read more“Linking to the Red Room”
Pulp Rag: Unmasking the world
I’m Europe, baby. I sent you Dutch Elm Disease, German Measles, and Russian Roulette. You sent me World Wind Vacation Tour #225. Now we’re even. —Suzanne Pleschette movie from 1969, If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium Hey! If it’s Tuesday, this must be Pulp Rag day! You know what… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Unmasking the world”
Pulp Rag: Making your life work
They probably pitched it as one thing, and then they went with something else because, hey, nobody’s watching. —Craig Bartlett, on the phone I did something freaky yesterday: I called up someone I hadn’t talked to in thirty years. It was my old friend, Craig, who used to stay up… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Making your life work”
Pulp Rag: Marking the milestones of a life
A couple of weeks ago I finally read Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. It turns out Angela didn’t have any ashes. Sadly, McCourt died earlier this summer. It was in the news. Only thirteen years earlier, Angela’s Ashes had rocketed out of nowhere as a memoir without a particularly focused… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Marking the milestones of a life”