Writes

All Posts
AS SURE AS APRIL [Episodes]
WRITES [An Opinion On the Craft]
MEDICINE FOR A BLUE LUTHER [Hist.]

THOMAS WOLFE: FOR THE PURE JOY OF LANGUAGE

Note: The following article is an excerpt from November 2017 post titled WRITE, DIE, OR GO NUMB, a brief exploration of my literary saint...

134 views0 comments

WITH THIS KEY

"To unlock the heart is to know its secrets, or as close as we may come, to hear its soft inner voice, a thing love alone can achieve,

162 views0 comments

THE DARLING BUDS

MY FONDNESS FOR MAY borders on idolatry. I admit that. Her touch is a breeze of sunlight. Her laughter, the pelt of a rose. That it is my...

272 views0 comments

AND MUSIC AT THE CLOSE: PARTING WORDS

IN SHAKESPEARE'S RICHARD II, Richard's uncle, "old John of Gaunt," infirm, close to death, makes an observation on the value of parting w...

177 views0 comments

FOR A PENNY'S WORTH OF HAMLET

IT WAS AN AGE WHEN PLAYS, poems, and letters were written in longhand. The pen was not just metaphor. Try to imagine a slower, more even ...

284 views0 comments

A CREDO FOR THOSE WHO GRIEVE

IN JANUARY, I posted an article called REFLECTING 17: THE BIG EVENT. True to its title, it looked back on the events of 2017, or at least...

339 views0 comments

LIKE ME: A VALENTINE FOR WRITERS

APPLAUSE. THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IT. Even the noblest among us, the most self-assured, modest, and self-deprecating have to admit that. Wh...

114 views0 comments

I AM LARGE. I CONTAIN MULTITUDES.

SUSAN SARANDON QUOTED HIM more than once in Bull Durham, a film about the great American pastime. He is mentioned with Thomas Wolfe in So...

203 views0 comments

LETTER TO A YOUNG WRITER

A FEW DAYS AGO, I received an email from a young writer, who, after reading my last post, BLOG TO BOOK: A REPRISE, asked me three questio...

190 views0 comments

BLOG TO BOOK: A REPRISE

WHEN I FIRST PRINTED IT OUT it was close to seven inches deep, a mountain of excess and overreach that would eventually become my first p...

92 views0 comments

WRITES

WRITES. It is a word that implies, first, an action. He writes. She writes. And so on. If we noun our verb, as Shakespeare was known to d...

125 views0 comments

WRITE-DIE-OR-GO-NUMB: MY LITERARY SAINTS

THERE ARE REASONS WHY YOU WRITE. Desire. Compulsion. Necessity. The desperate must, as in I must write-die-or-go-numb. All of the above? ...

266 views0 comments

TRIPPINGLY

I CONSIDERED DRAFTING a post on alliteration, but rethought that strategy. Why draw attention to a device I choose most often to avoid? O...

106 views0 comments

BE NOT TOO TAME NEITHER

IN ACT 3 of HAMLET, the play, Hamlet the prince offers instruction to a troupe of actors. To paraphrase: Pay attention to words. Don't sa...

233 views0 comments

LADY LIBERTY OWES A DEBT TO MARTIN LUTHER

WITHOUT RELEVANCE, history is little more than entertainment, a benign curiosity. History can be shy about giving up its secrets. It dema...

62 views0 comments

THE SMALL PECULIAR ART OF HAVING, CULTIVATING, AND FINALLY MAKING A POINT

This is, or should be, item #1 in the writer's catechism. The shy, fabulous, satisfying, all-knowing point.

159 views0 comments

GETTING THE WRITER OUT OF THE WAY

IF WRITING IS ANYTHING, IT IS A PERFORMANCE. The writer is the lone figure on the stage. A world may watch, judge, applaud, hiss, throw t...

105 views0 comments

AUTHOR AND FINISHER

The infinite is liberated through the finite, that is, through the absolute completeness of a line.

111 views0 comments

AN AURAL FASCINATION

Effective writing is all about fascination—being instructed and fed by it, following where it leads, submitting to its word choices . . .

77 views0 comments

CONTENT AND EXECUTION

THE DISCERNING WRITER, the writer who respects his audience and his craft will consider execution with the same weight, or gravity, he do...

94 views0 comments

{"items":["5ea2e7b13465ef00175cc31c","5ea2e7b151a1a90017be75ec","5ea2e7b136e7b2001706dcfa","5ea2e7b148a4330018b59c6a","5ea2e7b12e1db3001742a41e","5ea2e7b1b5c12700170b3ab1","5ea2e7b1f0e548001784aee1","5ea2e7b19c6f4200175291be","5ea2e7b1b628fa0017959202","5ea2e7b16adb140017ed151f","5ea2e7b12d0d0800172f92e5","5ea2e7b13b6db800170f24b0","5ea2e7b11292e3001741fb90","5ea2e7b281db8800172189bc","5ea2e7b1725646001704493b","5ea2e7b10e03d900179aff75","5ea2e7b157122b0017d45be7","5ea2e7b15dee5e0017429131","5ea2e7b2a8ae8800175ba1e1","5ea2e7b2db27280018963947"],"styles":{"galleryType":"Columns","groupSize":1,"showArrows":true,"cubeImages":true,"cubeType":"fill","cubeRatio":1.3333333333333333,"isVertical":true,"gallerySize":30,"collageAmount":0,"collageDensity":0,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":false,"imageMargin":32,"galleryMargin":0,"scatter":0,"rotatingScatter":"","chooseBestGroup":true,"smartCrop":false,"hasThumbnails":false,"enableScroll":true,"isGrid":true,"isSlider":false,"isColumns":false,"isSlideshow":false,"cropOnlyFill":false,"fixedColumns":1,"enableInfiniteScroll":true,"isRTL":false,"minItemSize":50,"rotatingGroupTypes":"","rotatingCropRatios":"","columnWidths":"","gallerySliderImageRatio":1.7777777777777777,"numberOfImagesPerRow":1,"numberOfImagesPerCol":1,"groupsPerStrip":0,"borderRadius":0,"boxShadow":0,"gridStyle":1,"mobilePanorama":false,"placeGroupsLtr":false,"viewMode":"preview","thumbnailSpacings":4,"galleryThumbnailsAlignment":"bottom","isMasonry":false,"isAutoSlideshow":false,"slideshowLoop":false,"autoSlideshowInterval":4,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":"SHOW_ON_THE_RIGHT","galleryTextAlign":"center","scrollSnap":false,"itemClick":"nothing","fullscreen":true,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","slideAnimation":"SCROLL","scrollDirection":0,"scrollDuration":400,"overlayAnimation":"FADE_IN","arrowsPosition":0,"arrowsSize":23,"watermarkOpacity":40,"watermarkSize":40,"useWatermark":true,"watermarkDock":{"top":"auto","left":"auto","right":0,"bottom":0,"transform":"translate3d(0,0,0)"},"loadMoreAmount":"all","defaultShowInfoExpand":1,"allowLinkExpand":true,"expandInfoPosition":0,"allowFullscreenExpand":true,"fullscreenLoop":false,"galleryAlignExpand":"left","addToCartBorderWidth":1,"addToCartButtonText":"","slideshowInfoSize":200,"playButtonForAutoSlideShow":false,"allowSlideshowCounter":false,"hoveringBehaviour":"NEVER_SHOW","thumbnailSize":120,"magicLayoutSeed":1,"imageHoverAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imagePlacementAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":0,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":50,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"loadMoreButtonText":"","loadMoreButtonBorderWidth":1,"loadMoreButtonBorderRadius":0,"imageInfoType":"ATTACHED_BACKGROUND","itemBorderWidth":1,"itemBorderRadius":0,"itemEnableShadow":false,"itemShadowBlur":20,"itemShadowDirection":135,"itemShadowSize":10,"imageLoadingMode":"BLUR","expandAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imageQuality":90,"usmToggle":false,"usm_a":0,"usm_r":0,"usm_t":0,"videoSound":false,"videoSpeed":"1","videoLoop":true,"jsonStyleParams":"","gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":940,"allowTitle":true,"allowContextMenu":true,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"itemBorderColor":{"themeName":"color_18","value":"rgba(95,112,129,1)"},"showVideoPlayButton":true,"galleryLayout":2,"targetItemSize":940,"selectedLayout":"2|bottom|1|fill|true|0|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":2,"isSlideshowFont":false,"externalInfoHeight":0,"externalInfoWidth":0.5},"container":{"width":940,"galleryWidth":972,"galleryHeight":0,"scrollBase":0,"height":null}}