Writing at the Edge of the Wood

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75697413753367782342012-02-16T13:46:35.428ZWriting at the Edge of the WoodYou come, too.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029059395584186807noreply@blogger.comBlogger81100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7569741375336778234.post-42951397809052594402008-06-29T08:39:00.001+01:002008-06-29T21:40:00.198+01:00Night Time at the Edge of the Wood

It's the time of night for nightingales. All through the year, no matter how close dawn seems, the nightingales start singing around half three in the morning. At high summer, this time of the year, it's not as disconcerting as it is in, say, December. But living on the edge of the wood means the sounds and spirits of the forest creep in all the time.Tonight we had a songbirdcome to visit us. I

Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029059395584186807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7569741375336778234.post-54233706174424095062008-06-29T02:59:00.000+01:002008-06-29T03:15:07.302+01:00Gamekeeper

Lucy, only barely sixteen, with her nut brown curls and dark and roving eye, her father's joy and the thorn in her mother's side, took it upon herself to travel across the forest for a basket of apples.'I can send the maid,' her mother said.'You'll bring me some nice, juicy red ones?' her father asked.No more was said, but Lucy's mother closed the door behind her and vanished to the kitchen.

Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029059395584186807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7569741375336778234.post-91852178146517925912007-06-24T13:44:00.001+01:002007-06-24T13:58:23.709+01:00Let's talk about process

"When I start a book, I always think it's patently absurd that I can write one. No one, certainly not me, can write a book 500 pages long. But I know I can write 15 pates, and if I write 15 pages every day, eventually I'll have 500 of them." --John Saul, American novelistJohn Saul writes thrillers, and I'm not familiar with his work, although I recognised some titles when I did a bibliography

Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029059395584186807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7569741375336778234.post-50632052678522334522007-06-18T12:33:00.000+01:002007-06-24T13:57:38.743+01:00Semicolons

If you write, or if you read a lot and have Opinions about writing, or if you teach and have Opinions of writing, could you please spend a few seconds thinking about the semicolon? Although I have my own opinion, I am curious what you think. Here are my questions about the semicolon.In your opinion, when and for what reasons is the semicolon properly used?Are there points of semicolon usage that

Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029059395584186807noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7569741375336778234.post-63927603385086495402007-06-12T10:43:00.001+01:002007-06-24T13:57:07.481+01:00"There are very few writers who are not cranks in some way."

Paul Theroux, an American writer and novelist, said that. Given his checkered reputation, he probably said it in his own defence! I chose this quote this morning because the one I skipped would have led me into the vertical takeoff rant again, and getting embroiled in that would have made me grumbly all day, thus satisfying at least one of the definitions of crank.Are all writers cranks? I

Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029059395584186807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7569741375336778234.post-80856518951343670612007-06-06T19:40:00.000+01:002007-06-24T13:55:41.983+01:00"Read, read, read..."

“Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the mast. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.” --William FaulknerRight now, I’m re-reading Little, Big, by John Crowley, thumbing through First Draft in 30 Days, by Karen Wiesner, and spicing

Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029059395584186807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7569741375336778234.post-90386254477427129512007-06-04T18:55:00.000+01:002007-06-24T13:54:56.066+01:00"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

Jack London said that. Jack London wrote The Call of the Wild, which I had to read in middle school like everybody else. I don’t remember much about the book except that it had some vague business to do with wolves, but this quote, the first one in A Writer’s Notebook, always makes me happy. Lots of people who write writing pages use this quote somewhere, but I am not sure how many of them really

Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029059395584186807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7569741375336778234.post-72810645113825666822007-06-04T14:05:00.001+01:002007-06-24T13:54:17.437+01:00Where do you go for inspiration?

Yesterday, my husband and I went through all the books on two of our massive bookshelves, and we managed to identify enough books that we didn't think we'd ever want to read or read again to fill four boxes. (I said the bookshelves were massive, didn't I? Wait 'til we get to the paperbacks!) During this task, we found things we had forgotten about, found things we'd been looking for, found things

Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029059395584186807noreply@blogger.com0