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...

100 viewsWrite a comment

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,

160 viewsWrite a comment

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...

270 viewsWrite a comment

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...

169 viewsWrite a comment

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 ...

280 viewsWrite a comment

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...

327 viewsWrite a comment

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 viewsWrite a comment

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...

194 viewsWrite a comment

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 viewsWrite a comment

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...

91 viewsWrite a comment

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...

123 viewsWrite a comment

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? ...

237 viewsWrite a comment

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...

104 viewsWrite a comment

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...

215 viewsWrite a comment

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...

61 viewsWrite a comment

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 viewsWrite a comment

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 viewsWrite a comment

AUTHOR AND FINISHER

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

110 viewsWrite a comment

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 viewsWrite a comment

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 viewsWrite a comment

{"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":1060,"collageAmount":0,"collageDensity":0,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":false,"imageMargin":16,"galleryMargin":0,"floatingImages":0,"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":"","rotatingCubeRatio":"","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,"useCustomButton":false,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":"SHOW_ON_THE_RIGHT","galleryHorizontalAlign":"center","galleryTextAlign":"center","galleryVerticalAlign":"center","scrollSnap":false,"itemClick":"expand","fullscreen":true,"allowSocial":true,"allowDownload":false,"allowTitle":true,"allowDescription":false,"loveButton":true,"loveCounter":false,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","scrollDirection":0,"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,"allowTitleExpand":true,"allowDescriptionExpand":true,"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","calculateTextBoxHeightMode":"AUTOMATIC","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":0,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":50,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"textsVerticalPadding":0,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"titleDescriptionSpace":6,"customButtonText":"","customButtonBorderWidth":1,"customButtonBorderRadius":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,"gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":1060,"itemBorderColor":{"themeName":"color_18","value":"rgba(95,112,129,1)"},"galleryLayout":2,"modifiedGallerySize":true,"selectedLayout":"2|bottom|1|fill|true|0|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":2,"isSlideshowFont":false,"externalInfoHeight":0,"externalInfoWidth":0.5},"container":{"width":1060,"galleryWidth":1092,"galleryHeight":1440,"scrollBase":0,"height":null}}