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November 02, 2020
Written and On-Screen Selves: On Diaries and Social Media
Do you remember your first diary?Mine was a baby blue hardcover with a cute little rhyme on it that I still remember to this day:People, places, faces. My life in words and phrases. All I've thought ...
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February 10, 2014Writer's Block Does Not Exist (Part 1)
Or it does. But for the sake of this blog it does not. What is writer's block? I don't know, because it does not exist. Here's the thing, whether you are a professional creative writer, a skilled hobbyist, ...
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April 14, 2014
Ideas
I keep a list of things I think I want to write about. Back when the list was a more manageable size, I’d tackle my ideas at enough of a distance for me to have processed the simple stuff, the details, ...
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May 03, 2023
Class, History, Fiction, and Form Part 2: Is the Bicycle Dead?
Before I do anything else, I have to try to say what I mean by fictional forms. I do so with a lot of trepidation, because my sense of these things is idiosyncratic and perhaps wrong. But here goes.People ...
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September 14, 2014On the Idea of a Secret (Part 1)
“The idea of a secret that will be revealed always results in one of two scenarios: death and destruction, or self-discovery and recovery beyond our wildest dreams of unification. And in the greatest ...
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April 29, 2014
Questions Not to Ask While Facing a Blank Page
Is enjambment supposed to be pronounced with a French accent?What do you do when you unpack a line and can’t figure out where you thought you were going in the first place?Is a metaphor just a simile ...
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September 27, 2018You’re Going the Right Way. It’s Just a Really, Really Long Way.
I’m often asked by aspiring writers, “How did you become an author?” or “How did you get into the publishing world?”I used to think this was a really tough question. Because of course there’s ...
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August 30, 2022Carolyn Huizinga Mills on Spark Sentences, Creating Vibrant Settings, & Why a Writing Process Requires Chocolate
In Carolyn Huizinga Mills' new novel, Sins of the Daughter (Cormorant Books), Danah Calsely is doing just fine. She's working diligently towards her PhD and her life is calm. The fact that her mother ...
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January 28, 2020"That Change, That Troubled Look, Was What Started Me Writing" Hannah Brown on Her Heartwrenching New Novel, Look After Her
International Holocaust Awareness Day passed just yesterday (January 27th), giving us an opportunity to remember its victims, meditate on its personal and global impact, and discuss why its lessons are ...
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February 21, 2017A few minutes with ... Adebe DeRango-Adem
Throughout my month here at open-book.ca I've been sharing my conversations with various members of the literary community. Our last conversation is with noted poet, Adebe DeRango-Adem. To learn more ...
