A Writer's Moment: 'Five hundred words a day'

A Writer's Moment: 'Five hundred words a day':   “An early editor characterized my books as 'romantic comedy for intelligent adults.' I think people see them as...

'Five hundred words a day'

 

“An early editor characterized my books as 'romantic comedy for intelligent adults.' I think people see them as funny but kind. I don't set out to write either funny or kind, but it's a voice they like, quirky like me... And you know, people like happy endings.” – Elinor Lipman

  

Born in Massachusetts on Oct. 16, 1950 Lipman studied journalism at Simmons College and began her writing career as a college intern with the Lowell (MA) Sun.   Right out of college she was hired to do press releases for Boston television station WGBH, a job she held throughout the 1970s before turning to a creative writing career, starting with short stories.

 

She started writing novels in the 1990s and has written 14 to go along with two nonfiction books and a short story collection.   Her first novel, Then She Found Me, was also made into a successful movie in 2008.  Her most recent best seller is 2023’s Ms. Demeanor, a finalist for the “Thurgood Prize for American Humor.”  

 

Known for her wit and “societal observations,” Lipman’s writing advice is simple:  “Five hundred words a day is what I aim for. And I don't go on to the next chapter until I've polished and polished and polished the one I'm working on.” 

A Writer's Moment: That 'familiar daily struggle'

A Writer's Moment: That 'familiar daily struggle':   “If someone is alone reading my poems, I hope it would be like reading someone's notebook. A record. Of a place, be...

That 'familiar daily struggle'

 

“If someone is alone reading my poems, I hope it would be like reading someone's notebook. A record. Of a place, beauty, difficulty. A familiar daily struggle.” – Fanny Howe

 

Born in Buffalo, NY on Oct. 15, 1940 Howe is a recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, presented by the Poetry Foundation to a living U.S. poet for lifetime achievement.   One of America’s “most read” experimental poets.  Also a prolific novelist, she has authored more than 30 books of poetry and prose. 

 

For Saturday’s Poem, here is Howe’s,                 

Footsteps

I have never arrived
into a new life yet.

Have you?

Do you find the squeak
of boots on snow

excruciating?

Have you heard people
say, It wasn't me,

when they accomplished
a great feat?

I have, often.
But rarely.

•

Possibility
is one of the elements.
It keeps things going.

The ferry
with its ratty engine
and exactitude at chugging
into blocks and chains.

Returning as ever
to mother's house
under a salty rain.

 

(Poetry 2011)

 

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Just use your own voice'

A Writer's Moment: 'Just use your own voice':   “I'm not aware of a cadence when writing, but I hear it after. I write in longhand, and that helps. You're clos...

'Just use your own voice'

 

“I'm not aware of a cadence when writing, but I hear it after. I write in longhand, and that helps. You're closer to it, and you have to cross things out. You put a line through it, but it's still there. You might need it. When you erase a line on a computer, it's gone forever.” – Elmore Leonard

I’ve written about Leonard in the past, but on this date of his birth (in Louisiana in 1925) I couldn’t resist reminiscing again about one of America’s greatest writers of “Realism” in the past century. 

 

A novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter, Leonard’s earliest works were Westerns (3:10 to Yuma and Hombre, for example), but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers.  Many of his books have been adapted into movies and TV shows; movies like Out of Sight and The Gold Coast, and mega-hit TV series like Justified and Get Shorty (also made into a movie).

 

To call Leonard’s writing “gritty,” might be an understatement, but regardless of how you classify it he shares a segment of America’s culture and dialogue that few other writers have been able to match.  To get a sense of how he developed his works, look at “Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing” (widely available on the Internet).   Perhaps his most telling rule: “If it sounds like writing . . . rewrite it.”

  

“Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write,” he said shortly before his death in 2013.  “I think the best advice I give is to try not to write. Try not to overwrite, try not to make it sound too good. Just use your own voice. Use your own style of putting it down.”

A Writer's Moment: Words can, and do, define us

A Writer's Moment: Words can, and do, define us:   The old saying about "sticks and stones" causing harm while "words" can not or do not is, of course...