My smart phone beeps and the tracking text from UPS appears: Your delivery is at the front door.
I go to the entrance of the house, open the door and gaze too long at the shipment sitting on the stoop, then carefully bend at the knees and lift it up. I lug it into my office and rest it on the desk, the place where I’ve spent all those hours writing. Then
About: dlitwack
Recent Posts by dlitwack
A Celebration of the Human Spirit
Posted on by dlitwack in dystopian fiction
The Boston Marathon course ran past the front steps of the apartment building where I grew up in Brighton. We lived a bit after the twentieth mile, just over the crest of Heartbreak Hill. Since Patriot’s day was a holiday and we had no school, we’d go out every year and watch, a rite of spring, along with opening day at Fenway Park.
Back then, there were a paltry two or three
My Writing Style
Posted on by dlitwack in Building Characters, Creating My Writing Voice, Details, details, The mood of a scene
Matthew Arnold wrote: “Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can.” Hemingway said it a bit differently: “My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the simplest possible way.”
I believe good writing is clear thinking, saying what you mean in the simplest possible way.
The problem for fiction writers is that we don’t always know
Why I write speculative fiction
I’ve always been suspicious about reality. Is what we believe merely a reflection of how we’ve been raised and what we’ve been taught. Anyone who has traveled knows other cultures see the world differently. And anyone who has spent extended time in a hospital or war zone has learned the hard way that one’s sense of reality can be easily fragmented. We conveniently construct a world view that suits us—at least until something challenges it.
The Greatest Thing I learned in School
In the seventh grade, I began a six year college preparatory school, the elite school in the city and accessible only via an entrance exam. Ninety-nine percent of its graduates went on to college, many to Ivy League schools. But only one in three graduated.
I felt pretty confident. I had a good education to date and all the skills to succeed. But I had never read for pleasure.
The kids
Why genres exist?
Did you ever stand in an art gallery, look at a painting and think,” it’s a girl squatting beside a bird’s nest.” Then the guy next to you says, “It’s a man walking a dog.” The two of you step closer to see who’s right, and the illusion dissolves into brushstrokes.
Books are like that. Why should a bunch of letters crawling across a page evoke so much emotion? “I loved that
The plot thickens – how to start a story
Many writers have an image in their mind of how to begin a plot. First, you come up with one or more compelling characters who want something badly. Then you make it hard for them to get it.
Over time, I’ve heard others talk about how they like to envision the situation that starts their story. One said he sends his characters up a tree and throws rocks at them until they
“If you can keep on trying after three failures in a given undertaking you may consider yourself a ‘suspect’ as a potential leader in your chosen occupation. If you can keep on trying after a dozen failures the seed of a genius is germinating within your soul.” -Napoleon Hill
What’s so hot about dystopia?
Posted on by dlitwack in dystopian fiction
The Telegraph in London recently wrote about dystopian fiction: “Wizards and vampires are out. The market in teen fiction is dominated now by societies in breakdown.”
What’s so attractive about burned-out worlds and people scrabbling for food in hollow shells of cities?
A closer look shows dystopia has been around a long time. Panic about the cold war and the atomic age produced such classics as George Orwell’s 1984 and William
Quote from Albert Einstein:
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
