One time at a writing workshop, someone asked the speaker for tips on writing in omniscient. His response: Unless you're Tolstoy, don't do it. Well, call me Tolstoy. The thing is, I really wasn't trying to swim upstream. I had to rewrite my novel in omniscient. Doing so cut it down to a manageable size, … Continue reading Omniscient—Do You Dare?
Writing
Fun, Fear, and Flamenco
Here's an update on what I've been doing instead of blogging... A few hours ago I got that peculiar feeling that I was being watched. I twisted around on the couch and saw a baby black bear peeking in through the screen door only a few feet away from me. (Sorry, no photos.) It was … Continue reading Fun, Fear, and Flamenco
The Challenges in Writing a Philosophical Novel
A while back I did some Googling to find out whether someone out there had written a book similar to mine, and in my research I came across Charles Johnson's novel, Faith and The Good Thing. Too good to be true. He too makes use of the most powerful centerpieces in Plato's works: The Allegory of the … Continue reading The Challenges in Writing a Philosophical Novel
Translating in the Dark
I'm working on a project with Andreas (you may know him as "Nannus") to translate Frege's "On the Scientific Justification of a Concept Script," which is funny since I don't know much about Frege—close to nothing—and I don't speak German. Nannus, however, is a native German speaker with a strong grasp of English and logic, … Continue reading Translating in the Dark
Going Plotless
In my last post I described the rule-breaking writing exercises I'm working on with my writing group. I promised to post an example: Don’t write a tight plot. Sounds easy, right? But here we want to focus on how to write a story with multiple trajectories that don’t quite add up. How might this work? … Continue reading Going Plotless
