Hi. My name is Lara. Some snippets on writing.

FEAR

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:54:00 -0400

By Lydia Davis

Nearly every morning, a certain woman in our community comes running out of her house with her face white and her overcoat flapping wildly. She cries out, “Emergency, emergency,” and one of us runs to her and holds her until her fears are calmed. We know she is making it up; nothing has really happened to her. But we understand, because there is hardly one of us who has not been moved at some time to do just what she has done, and every time, it has taken all our strength, and even the strength of our friends and families too, to quiet us.

More here.

Smitten

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:36:00 -0400

Smitten past participle of smite (Verb)

1: to strike sharply or heavily especially with the hand or an implement held in the hand

2: to kill or severely injure by smiting; to attack or afflict suddenly and injuriously <smitten by disease>

3: to cause to strike

4: to affect as if by striking <children smitten with the fear of hell — V. L. Parrington>

5: captivate, take <smitten with her beauty>

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: sonder

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:30:55 -0400

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: sonder:

dictionaryofobscuresorrows:

n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate…

Courage. Compassion. Grace. Fortitude.

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:04:00 -0400

Courage. Compassion. Grace. Fortitude.

"The world is flux and so are we. Twitter away, ye denizens of the mechanised world – give me the..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:04:18 -0400

“The world is flux and so are we. Twitter away, ye denizens of the mechanised world – give me the birds, the ants and stinging flies any day.”

- My desktop: TC Boyle via The Guardian

“If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:29:00 -0400

“If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don’t compromise, and don’t waste time. Start now. Not 20 years from now, not two weeks from now. Now.” ―Debbie Millman via Brain Pickings

To write like this

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:04:00 -0400

“You still felt that life was passing you by?”

“Sort of. I still had this idea that there was a whole world of marvelous golden people somewhere, as far ahead of me as the seniors at Rye when I was in sixth grade; people who knew everything instinctively, who made their lives work out the way they wanted without even trying, who never had to make the best of a bad job because it never occurred to them to do anything less than perfectly the first time. Sort of heroic super-people, all of them beautiful and witty and calm and kind, and I always imagined that when I did find them I’d suddenly know that I belonged among them, that I was one of them, that I’d been meant to be one of them all along, and everything in the meantime had been a mistake; and they’d know it too. I’d be like the ugly duckling among the swans.”

― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

When I get overwhelmed, I tend to think of whales and all we...

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:46:49 -0400

When I get overwhelmed, I tend to think of whales and all we don’t know.

Fiction lends me a placeholder.

“Science allows us to glimpse fragments of reality. There is another level, for the understanding of which our brains are not programmed. In other words, there are concepts, such as infinity in space and in time, which science cannot fathom. These concepts belong to a level of reality which is above our heads.” - Arthur Koestler, The Art of Fiction No. 80

“If nothing matters, there’s nothing to save.” ― Jonathan...

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:14:00 -0400

“If nothing matters, there’s nothing to save.” ― Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

Jonathan Safran Foer is lending his support to our Kickstarter. Back us here: http://bit.ly/jsfks

Note to self. explore-blog: Raymond Chandler on writing

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:49:49 -0400

Note to self.

explore-blog:

Raymond Chandler on writing

annfriedman: In my ongoing quest for the perfect framework for...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:37:39 -0400

annfriedman:

In my ongoing quest for the perfect framework for understanding haters, I created The Disapproval Matrix**. (With a deep bow to its inspiration.) This is one way to separate haterade from productive feedback. Here’s how the quadrants break down:

Critics: These are smart people who know something about your field. They are taking a hard look at your work and are not loving it. You’ll probably want to listen to what they have to say, and make some adjustments to your work based on their thoughtful comments.

Lovers: These people are invested in you and are also giving you negative but rational feedback because they want you to improve. Listen to them, too.

Frenemies: Ooooh, this quadrant is tricky. These people really know how to hurt you, because they know you personally or know your work pretty well. But at the end of the day, their criticism is not actually about your work—it’s about you personally. And they aren’t actually interested in a productive conversation that will result in you becoming better at what you do. They just wanna undermine you. Dishonorable mention goes to The Hater Within, aka the irrational voice inside you that says you suck, which usually falls into this quadrant. Tell all of these fools to sit down and shut up.

Haters: This is your garden-variety, often anonymous troll who wants to tear down everything about you for no rational reason. Folks in this quadrant are easy to write off because they’re counterproductive and you don’t even know them. Ignore! Engaging won’t make you any better at what you do. And then rest easy, because having haters is proof your work is finding a wide audience and is sparking conversation. Own it.

The general rule of thumb? When you receive negative feedback that falls into one of the top two quadrants—from experts or people who care about you who are engaging with and rationally critiquing your work—you should probably take their comments to heart. When you receive negative feedback that falls into the bottom two quadrants, you should just let it roll off your back and just keep doin’ you. If you need to amp yourself up about it, may I suggest this #BYEHATER playlist on Spotify? You’re welcome.

** I presented The Disapproval Matrix to the fine folks at MoxieCon in Chicago yesterday, and they seemed to find it useful, so I figured I’d share with the class. It was originally inspired by a question my friend Channing Kennedy submitted to my #Realtalk column at the Columbia Journalism Review.

Do what you want. Live cheaply. explore-blog: How to find...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:15:53 -0400

Do what you want. Live cheaply.

explore-blog:

How to find fulfilling work. Also see how to find your purpose and do what you love.

“Know what we did, Lucy? You and me? We spent our whole lives...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:46:00 -0400

“Know what we did, Lucy? You and me? We spent our whole lives yearning. Isn’t that the God damndest thing?”
― Richard Yates, Young Hearts Crying

Conversations by Tom Bendtsen

Happy #pocketpoem Day! “Today” by Frank O’Hara

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:17:18 -0400

Happy #pocketpoem Day! “Today” by Frank O’Hara

“I think extravagance in your life takes the energy from...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:29:21 -0400

“I think extravagance in your life takes the energy from possible extravagances in your mind.” — Kay Ryan via The Paris Review

"When we learn a new word it’s like making a friend,” she said once. “And we all..."

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:46:00 -0400

““When we learn a new word it’s like making a friend,” she said once. “And we all like to make friends, don’t we? Now, for instance, when school began this year you were all strangers to me, but I wanted very much to learn your names and remember your faces, and so I made the effort. It was confusing at first, but before long I’d made friends with all of you. And later on we’ll have some good times together—oh, perhaps a little party at Christmastime, or something like that—and then I know I’d be very sorry if I hadn’t made that effort, because you can’t very well have fun with a stranger, can you?” She gave them a comely, shy smile. “And that’s just the way it is with words.””

- Kills me.

Richard Yates, “Fun with a Stranger”

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it,...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:54:33 -0400

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” - The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

Writing advice from Lev Grossman, Gene Wolfe, Kit Reed, and Neil...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:56:44 -0400

Writing advice from Lev Grossman, Gene Wolfe, Kit Reed, and Neil Gaiman

American Short Fiction: It's Opening Day! It's about to be National Poetry Month! It's Denis Johnson!

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 22:15:00 -0400

American Short Fiction: It's Opening Day! It's about to be National Poetry Month! It's Denis Johnson!:

americanshortfiction:

A Poem about Baseballs

BY DENIS JOHNSON

for years the scenes bustled

through him as he dreamed he was

alive. then he felt real, and slammed

awake in the wet sheets screaming

too fast, everything moves

too fast, and the edges of things

are gone. four blocks away

a baseball was a dot against

the sky, and he thought, my

glove is too big, i will

drop the ball and it will be

a home run. the snow falls

too fast from the clouds,

and night is dropped and

snatched back like a huge

joke. is that the ball, or is

it just a bird, and the ball is

somewhere else, and i will

miss it? and the edges are gone, my

hands melt into the walls, my

hands do not end where the wall

begins. should i move

forward, or back, or will the ball

come right to me? i know i will

miss, because i always miss when it

takes so long. the wall has no

surface, no edge, the wall

fades into the air and the air is

my hand, and i am the wall. my

arm is the syringe and thus i

become the nurse, i am you,

nurse. if he gets

around the bases before the

ball comes down, is it a home

run, even if i catch it? if we could

slow down, and stop, we

would be one fused mass careening

at too great a speed through

the emptiness. if i catch

the ball, our side will

be up, and i will have to bat,

and i might strike out.

"They were sorry, they were saying with their bodies, they were accepting each other back, and that..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:17:42 -0400

“They were sorry, they were saying with their bodies, they were accepting each other back, and that feeling, that feeling of being accepted back again and again, of someone’s affection for you expanding to encompass whatever new flawed thing had just manifested in you, that was the deepest, dearest thing he’d ever—”

- from “Tenth of December” by George Saunders