Start writing by thinking, not wrestling with words.
– Jonathan Price
haiku 389
watching the ice storm
on the radar
not out the window
Author’s Note: Adding to the Fun
While tooling around online, I came across someone who unabashedly used the word “funnest” in a sentence. The Internet is a wonderful place, and I spend a lot of time there, but it isn’t necessarily a haven for grammar purity.
The usage irked me, and the sneaking suspicion that it’s slowly becoming standard irked me even more. A quick search led me (naturally) to both Grammar Girl and the Grammarist. The short version of both is that I was right to be irked: those of us who would rather rake our nails across a chalkboard than to use “funner” or “funnest” are likely on the losing end of linguistic history. There’s nothing fun about that.
Continue reading “Author’s Note: Adding to the Fun”
Quotable 271
If you are moved by someone else’s work, study it to discover how they made the magic.
– Jenny Wingfield
haiku 388
power lines –
ancient stars burn
in the dark
Quotable 270
Read, and above all reread. When you read, you get the great pleasure of discovering what happened. When you reread, you get the great pleasure of knowing where the author’s going and seeing how he goes about getting there – and that’s learning creative writing.
– Shelby Foote
haiku 387
Memorial Day
shaky old soldiers
report for duty
Quotable 269
If you wrote from experience, you’d get maybe 1 book, maybe 3 poems. Writers write from empathy.
– Nikki Giovanni
haiku 386
feline maître d’
moves off restaurant steps
to let us in
Quotable 268
A writer is someone who pays attention to the world – a writer is a professional observer.
– Susan Sontag