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
writing
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
Rule-Breaking Writing Exercises
I'm in a writing group that's been going on for years now. Normally we follow a certain schedule (if you're interested in how our Garden Group operates, see this), but recently I've decided to shake things up a bit. I asked everyone in the group to tell me a rule he or she generally abides … Continue reading Rule-Breaking Writing Exercises