millenial.
This blog isn’t about anything. Because I’m 23, and I don’t know what I’m about.
You should enter this contest.
being bold
“I’ve noticed that some younger writers are really being brave, trying out new things, and I think they may sense that a lot of big publishing is shitting the bed anyway, that getting out of the mindset that there is a nice living to made writing serious fiction is the important first step. Then you are free.
I think the internet has been great for new fiction. That’s been the big change. People are still writing stories and novels and a few are great and some are good and most aren’t very good at all. I guess what’s different is that you could go through your awkward stage in private. Back when I was figuring out how to write the internet existed but not like today. We’d have the same conversations that people have online now, rants about the more established writers we revered and hated, and we made a lot of stupid pronouncements about the state of literature and how it’s all shit except for so-and-so and what’s-her-name and, of course, us, but the only witnesses were a few people and a sofa and some beer cans. Or you might show somebody a story you wrote, but there was no posting it on a blog. So there was no real record of when you were a dumb, scared, angry baby who didn’t know how to write yet.”
sam lipsyte. (via meaghano)
I added the bold emphasis.
Back in high school I shared a little Xanga (yes, wow) network with some of my writer friends. We met at writing camp, and then throughout the year we’d post our poems and stories online for comments. It was public, but nowhere near as public as my every day life is now, which I suppose is why I don’t post that kind of stuff online anymore. Maybe I should start.
...And the bonus Canada Also Reads Rule I didn't include...
When you start to get some notoriety and attention know that every single person who was a jerk to you in high school will email you to congratulate you and pretend they didn’t actually call you obscene, soul-crippling names and throw things at you in the cafeteria. Sorry, you can’t tell them about the years of therapy they are ultimately responsible for. Instead you will have to have polite email exchanges with them about all of those great high school memories you don’t actually have. There is no way around this. Best to write a stock email and cut and paste it as necessary.
from: staceymayfowles
whatever you do, keep writing
Everyone’s talking about the Guardian’s Rules for Writing Fiction. Now we have our own Canadian version! First post is from the lovely Stacey May Fowles, and my fave piece of advice is:
“No, the main character is not based on me. It’s fiction.” Repeat as needed.
Yes, okay, i like the ipad
I have so many iPad thoughts. Here’s one that I agree with, from the magCulture blog:
After so much hype it was always going to be difficult to impress people, and there’s already signs of a backlash online, not least about that name. But… I want one. Have a look at the pictures online and tell me you don’t want one. If still unsure, look at it being used here. Yum yum.People have commented it’s ‘just a big iPhone’, as if there was something wrong with that. Was it ever going to be anything else? A big iPhone will do me. I’ve been using my iPhone increasingly for reading content, enjoying excellent apps like the Guardian’s, and I can easily imagine doing the same with more space for design and presentation.
Exactly. Eventually, we have to let it go that the iPad isn’t something completely different. Not everything has to be, and it’s a symptom of our ever-evolving tech culture that makes us think we deserve a camera, and an e-reader, and the Internet and a word processor all in one - oh, and we want to use them all at the same time…
The iPad is an excellent way to consume online content on a bigger screen than the iPhone, but in a mobile form outside the laptop. It puts netbooks to shame - lets face it, netbooks kinda suck.
Many commentators complained that, when the New York Times demo was put on the screen, it wasn’t that impressive. Herein lies the problem with our Apple affair: They’re not in charge of saving newspapers. They’ve created the vessel, now we have to create the content to put on it. So now the New York Times, and the New Yorker, and Wired etc., will need to step it up. It’s up to them to make the iPad worth having.
Have you ever taken a look at FLYP? This magazine is practically made for the iPad, and should be the inspiration for all other traditional print pubs herein.
In general, my response to iPad complaints can be best witnessed through this video. “Everything is amazing, and nobody is happy.” Isn’t it amazing that you can read a magazine or book with embedded video on this thing? Isn’t it amazing that you can carry as many newspapers as you want on the train through it? And you can check your email with it too!
Oh… you want a camera? Ugh.
magical thinking
#3: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Preface:
This book made me cry. A lot. In the following places: the work commute, the lunch break, the B63 bus, McDonald’s (leave me alone), and my apartment. If you’re looking for a solid session of weeping, this is the story for you.
Thoughts:
Over the last few months, I had heard over and over again that if you are looking to read more female writers, you start with Joan Didion. It’s here that I’ll wholeheartly agree. Finally buying The Year of Magical Thinking a couple of weeks ago, I nonchalantly walked out of the store with what I thought was a book about a fantastic, whimsical love. The world “magical” has a certain connotation in my mind, one that leads to a sense of elation. Clearly, I had not done my homework. In Didion’s world, The Year of Magical Thinking happened after the sudden death of her husband (whom she did fantastically and whimsically love)during an ordinary dinner at their home, while her daughter was being treated in Intensive Care. A life can change in an instant, but it appears that one’s writing doesn’t have to. Didion’s, in what is my only experience with her thus far, hit a nerve with me. It made feel as though I had loved the people she loved, travelled where she travelled, and wrote what she wrote.
I’ve worked in the medical field for a few years now and still find myself thinking that I really don’t know anything. One can research medical issues and feel better, but as Didion so eloquently expresses, there is only so much information can cure. Experiences such as hers, death and illness of loved ones, are more telling of what happens in one’s life and the amount of strength (how ever changing and how ever meaningful that is) they can show.
Finally, I’ll just mention that I can see so much of what I want in Didion’s writing. Not often do I read sentences and think “That’s it! That’s what I want to read all the time!” Her prose is both smart and welcoming; it did not make me as a lowly little reader with nothing to offer. Instead, I was able to merge my own experiences with hers. Every couple of chapters I would look to the back cover in order to see (again) the portrait of her family. It only brought about more curiosity. So in the months to come, I’ll continue with my wikipedia searches about her and hope to read a little more.
Yes, yes, yes! Now read Slouching Toward Bethlehem. Then The White Album. I read Magical Thinking first, too, and then Play it As it Lays, but I think that is about the opposite way you should do it! Actually there is a Vintage Didion compendium that is beautiful and perfect, maybe that! (although i sort of hate those big Best Of’s, who wants to carry around an encyclopedia? Each book is its own choice, its own journey, blabbity blah)(but that one sure is pretty!).
Back to the land
How beautiful is this? A great story/infographic/photo essay from The New York Time about eating locally, teaching kids about food and saving the world, really. Livin’ the good life.
The last sentence reminds me of the Q podcast I listened to on the way home from class yesterday. An American actress decided to follow every single thing that Oprah said for one year, to fulfill her quest to ‘live her best life.’
I’m a bit uneasy about all these ‘I’ll do —- for a year and sign a book deal!’ plans, but the Oprah one is interesting considering many women have been doing this voluntarily since she started her show. Still, apparently I need to cook my way into oblivion or follow a toned-down cult leader to be a writah.
Too Much Health Care
Awesome photo for this week’s Body Politic, right?
telling stories
From Megan Cottrell’s True/Slant blog:
“I have this idea about journalism - that it should be approachable and less “newsy.” I want my stories to make you laugh, cry and draw you in to neighborhoods and situations you don’t deal with every day. I hate the broadcaster voice. I hate TV news. I hate the inverted pyramid. I love surprise. I love humor. I love people and telling their stories.”
