writing
10
Mar 10
Resplenence: Letter to Edmund
Dear Edmund,
I’m leaving the hospital for good. You’ll probably say, “Yeah, it’s not the first time you’ve talked about leaving.” That’s just it. I’ve always talked about it, hoping the Gold Lady would drive down from Santa Monica and take me away. But she keeps telling me this is something I would have to do myself, that I would have to come to her. So I did what you normally do, pretend to take my pills and flush them down the toilet when I had to go to the bathroom. I’m feeling a little sick right now, but I think I’ll be OK.
20
Feb 10
Fiction: Sa Na
After seeing sa na on the list, Hlau is no closer to finding out what these two syllables mean.
Hlau parked his car close to Toshan Circle and headed to the Sanaya Café to meet Midori, the agent assigned to the case. After seeing sa na on the list, the syllables jumped out at him, especially with the furigana, or the small Phonic syllables above the Universal characters on the sign. However, sa na was also present on several other signs within sight – Hisanaya Bank, Losana Books, Bosanada restaurant. Something told him that sa na had to be something else other than a business, but he could not know for sure. Living in Shusa, he never really paid much attention to the signs attached to buildings, like most people, he only saw them on a cursory level and read the signs he needed to get to. Now he couldn’t help notice the neon tubes bent into complex characters, which was popular a season ago with newer ones made for nostalgic purposes, letters attached to building facades, illuminated at night, banners, old hanging signs with archaic typefaces, and fluorescent light backed hard plastic signs in all colors and fonts. Two commonly used syllables now jumped out at him from everywhere.
14
Feb 10
“Project Mintaka,” etc
On Friday, I quietly posted the beginning of a work in progress. It’s been a while since I’ve posted creative writing on ShindoTV, much more longer than some other things. I started again mainly to get myself writing again. The intro and the list in question are parts of what I’ve dubbed for the time being “Project Mintaka,” but I’ll come up with a better title later. Also, these pieces of the story in progress are subject to revision later and I’ll definitely work them into a more coherent form when there’s enough to get a book going. That’s the intent anyway.
12
Jul 09
Books: The Writing Class
What happens when a misanthropic has-been creative writing teacher is put together with students of varying levels of talent? Murder and mayhem. Well, murder occurs in small doses, but a much-aggrieved, much-rejected, aspiring literary hack does a lot to cause the mayhem, which terrorizes Amy Gallop, the instructor, and her class of mostly novice writers. The mystery of the perpertrator, however, fascinates the group and is a much stronger draw than getting one’s stories torn apart. Jincy Willett‘s The Writing Class is one of those books I came across purely by accident while shopping for steampunk novels at Mysterious Galaxy in Kearny Mesa.
11
Jul 09
The Grammar Police
It is my job to know grammar. I teach college-level English and I studied writing throughout my college and grad school careers. I even have a few books on grammar as it is necessary to know style and punctuation as a writer. However, I’m not the grammar police.
It has recently occurred to me that most people obsessed with grammar care less about saying something well than they do catching someone in a violation of the English language. They are superior little snots. Also, they are the type of people who would fastidiously avoid ending a sentence with a preposition. Their sentence are clunky because they have correct grammar, concision be damned. Then again, these are the people who obviously suck at math and take out their insecurities on others. Subscribing to a language dogma somehow makes them feel better about themselves as they are incapable of adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and solving equations. That would take real mind work and knowledge.
One important thing to note is the grammar-obsessed rarely teach English or writing. They’re often not even linguists, who actually take classes on this type of stuff. They are often rank amateurs who often don’t know what they’re talking about. They may even have a dangling modifier in their sentence and might not even know it.
Self-appointed grammarians, leave this stuff to the professionals. Thanks.
General advice: DO NOT ENGAGE. They are the type of people to put up a fight, especially if they’re wrong, because, the burden of proof’s on you. It always is. Christian Lander has some further advice in his post about grammar.
3
Jul 09
Harlan Ellison: A Dreamer with Sharp Teeth
In an endearing scene, Harlan Ellison explains (and gets worked up over) DVD extras for Babylon 5 and why he should be paid for interviews used. It’s only right
When I was an undergraduate in the first day of an upper-divsion creative writing class, the professor had us write our manifestos as our introductions. Much of what I wrote for mine was “blah, blah, blah” except for one thing—I wanted to be a paid dreamer. Perhaps its the biggest pipe dream I ever had, but the flamboyant, pugnacious, and prolific author Harlan Ellison had been paid to dream and share for decades. Also, he’s known for much of his opinions, solicited or not, and his fights, as seen in A Dreamer with Sharp Teeth.
For any writer, this documentary is a definite must-see. As much as Ellison runs his mouth off, he does a what a writer is supposed to do—write. Also, he’s on point, whether he’s discussing using the mind or what it is to be a professional writer, as shown in a scene where he discusses Warner Brothers wanting to use interviews with him for DVD extras for Babylon 5 without paying him. Ellison puts up a fight, of course, but only because he believes he is right. And he is. Gotta love him for that.
9
Feb 09
Contest: Picture Worth 1000 Words?
My friend Avril (via Lance) has some interesting images in her collection, such as this man with a big, um, gigantic… you know.
There is the cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words. So here’s a first on ShindoTV, a writing contest. I can’t give away any cash prizes, gasoline for a year, or even a car. However, you can have a broadcast on ShindoTV. Essentially, I’m putting up a contest for the best vignette (actually less than 1000 words) based on this picture. I will publish the best submission.
Here are the rules:
- Written piece must be based on the picture above.
- Entries must be brief written pieces: prose (100-300 words) or poem (20 lines max).
- Check your work before you send it. I cannot make corrections.
- Submissions must be sent by e-mail. Send all entries to shinichi@shindotv.com and put “Vignette for ShindoTV” in the subject line.
- Include your name, location (city, state, country), and website URL (if available) in the e-mail. Put “Copyright” or © next to your name at the bottom of the work.
- Vignettes must be submitted by February 20th, 12:00am PST.
The winning entry will be posted on March 3, 2009. Be creative.
Missed this contest or would like to try again? The next photo and vignette contest will be posted on Feb 23, 2009.
