writing

Worthy Words: A Peculiar Crossroads

/ Gerry Wilson / Leave a comment

The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location. 

—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964), Mystery and Manners, part 2 (1969).

Railway
Image courtesy of samurai / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How profound is this concept, and how true? 

Flannery O’Connor is one of my favorite writers. A master of the short story, she is famous for blending the gritty and the mysterious into as motley a crew of characters as you’ll ever hope to meet.

If you’ve never read her work, I encourage you to sample her stories. Here’s a link to “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” which is often anthologized.


Have you experienced moments in your own writing where—somehow—the real and the mysterious come together? Tell me about it in a comment!

A Picture’s Worth . . . How Many Words?

/ Gerry Wilson / Leave a comment

Something New at The Writerly Life: Photo Prompts

For years I kept a folder of photographs (yes, real ones, printed out or clipped from magazines and newspapers) and used them as writing prompts for my students. I would set the pictures up around the room and let the students browse until something “struck them” about a photo. Then they were to take it back to their desks and free-write. Those early drafts often led to striking memoirs, stories, or poems.

Dive into a Photo, Come Up with a Story 

What I’m proposing is the opposite of a photo challenge (which I love), where a particular word sparks the search for an image. Here, the image sparks the words.

Every other week, I’ll post a photo. You’ll supply the creativity!

Maybe the photograph will trigger a memory, prompt a story or a poem, or even a blog post! Take the situation and run with it. Write about what’s happening in the picture. Write what came before. Write what comes after. Take it anywhere you like . . .

Your reward, if you choose to accept the challenge, is the pleasure of writing something new!

Let me know how this works for you. You might even post the first 100 words or so—or a few lines of a poem—in a comment. Or share a link to a longer piece. Whatever you do, have fun. Happy writing!

Here’s the first photo:

“Jumping Into Swimming Pool” by Ian Kahn
Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Monday Discovery: Lisa Cron on Writing and Brain Science

/ Gerry Wilson / Leave a comment

The excellent website/blog for writers, Writer Unboxed, is not a recent discovery, but Lisa Cron is. Lisa is the author of WIRED FOR STORY: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence.

MRI of human brain
Image at http://bit.ly/NfdUEQ (office.microsoft.com)

Lisa has just joined the Writer Unboxed team.  In today’s WU post,  Why Are We Wired for Story?, Lisa proposes that, because of the way our brains are wired, it doesn’t matter how beautifully polished the prose is; it’s the story that matters. Unless urgency in the story provokes curiosity in the reader, no amount of “fixing” will work.

An excellent, thought-provoking post. Go read it now, and let me know what you think.