Author Archives: sdgibson
Opening (and continuing) with desire
Two quotations from “Silent Movie” by Charles Baxter in his collection A Relative Stranger: She was tired of men’s voices, of their volume and implacability. She had the idea that she would spend the day not listening to any … Continue reading
Controlling knowledge and characters who teach
I finished Cryptonomicon probably two weeks ago. An excellent novel. It ends with an excerpt from Stephenson’s next book and with a system for encoding information. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, if I remember correctly, includes in its narrative … Continue reading
Eavesdropping
Eavesdropping was often mentioned as a source for stories in the first creative writing classes I took. Cell phones have certainly improved opportunities for evesdropping. Overheard fragments of conversations can act as, in the words of They Might Be Giants, … Continue reading
The New-England Primer and Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever
The The Norton Anthology of American Literature,our English 2510 text, points out how The New-England Primer changed as a result of the American revolution and the influence of Puritanism (see page 354 and the footnotes on 355 especially). How similar (or different) are … Continue reading
Captivity narratives
Each bullet point below is a quotation from Vaughan, Alden T. and Edward W. Clark. “Cups of Common Calamity.” Introduction. Puritans Among the Indians. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1981.1-28. The current edition can be found here. Ironically, the earliest New World … Continue reading
Quick starts, structure, and emergency fiction
Here are links to two PDFs. The first seems useful for developing large structures or cores (albeit traditional ones) around which long narratives can be built. The second gives simple, direct steps (scaleable steps, good for scenes or books) for … Continue reading
The oral electric notebook
Many creative writers keep notebooks for recording ideas about future and current projects. I’ve found myself using voice mail in a similar way. When I have an idea at 2:00 a.m., rather than searching for my notebook, I try to … Continue reading
New England Puritan beliefs and their influence
Mortality was a constant part of the Puritan’s lives; they felt death was always very close and this belief affected all the phases of each of their individual lives–not just belief but ideas of family, of career, of the worth … Continue reading
Characterization: showing and setting
Two exercises about characterization from the sixth edition of Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft: Write down three adjectives (beautiful, aggressive, haughty) that describe a character in your story-in-progress. (Be sure the adjectives describe different qualities, not … Continue reading
Writing in the Age of Distraction
I don’t know much about Cory Doctorow, but I like some of the writing advice he gives: Don’t research. Researching isn’t writing and vice-versa. When you come to a factual matter that you could google in a matter of seconds, don’t. Don’t … Continue reading
Metaphor by Metaphor 