Jennifer R. Hubbard's Blog, page 126

Writing in the digital age

These days, my world seems to be half populated by people who are unplugging from electronic networks in disgust with the time-suck/lack of in-person interaction/ever-increasing pace of change/whatever else, and half by people who are eagerly bounding forward on the cutting edge of every new technological development. I'm sitting here in the middle.

Honestly, if it weren't for my participation in the literary community, I would spend very little time online. I could curl up happily with my pap...

Poetry Friday: Sunflower Sutra

In keeping with National Poetry Month and Poetry Friday, today I'm reading Allen Ginsberg's "Sunflower Sutra."

Ginsberg is best known for his poem "Howl," which has one of the best (and certainly most quotable) openings out there:
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness ..."

In Michael Schumacher's biography of Ginsberg, Dharma Lion, the author discussed how Ginsberg's use of very long lines in poetry was a breakthrough.  It seemed to enable Ginsberg to find his true rhythm, ...

Balance beam

People protect themselves. They rationalize, they lie, they evade, they pretend, they act. They gloss over and minimize, they offer alternate explanations, they keep silent when they want to speak, they go along with the crowd even when they're uncomfortable.

I don't mean that all people do this all the time, but these are common defense mechanisms. We're social beings and we like the approval of others, and we like to feel good about ourselves. So we soften this sharp-edged world with self-p...

Rules? What rules?

I recommend Jon Gibbs's blog in general; it's full of writer talk and includes a weekly summary of interesting posts about writing from around the blogosphere. Today he's talking about writing advice gone bad, and it reminds me of an experience I often have at writers' conferences.  During the Q&A, someone will raise a hand and begin a question this way:

"Can you ever ..."

Usually the person is asking because she's been told not to do whatever it is she's asking about.  But before I even hear ...

Questions

Some of the most useful critique that I get is in the form of questions. What does this mean? Why did he do that? Is she serious here? What's driving her?

And sometimes I start interrogating the characters in turn.  Why did you do that? Where did that come from? How do you really feel about her? What are you hoping for? What are you afraid of?

Often, the scene breaks open, or turns in an unexpected direction, or I see a way to connect two scenes that had seemed separate before.  I never like to...

Library-Loving Challenge 2010: Over and Out

This year’s Library-Loving Blog Challenge was so successful that I’ve had to spread the reports over three posts! This is the last one. You can see Parts 1 and 2 for more lists of donors and donations.  Here's our last list of donors:

Book Junkie’s Bookshelf: $13 plus books for Mount Horeb public library
Beth Mithen (A Writing Journey): $50 for Gilbert H. Gragg library (GA)
BonSue Brandvik (Spirits of the Belleview Biltmore): $100 for Clearwater main library (FL)
Randee Dawn (Armchair News): $8...

The other way to freelance

I think I've seen links to this Tax Form for the Marginally Employed all over the web, but I finally clicked through at the Writtenwyrdd site.

Yeah, it's funny, but I couldn't help thinking that this joke is aimed at one conception of the freelancer: the full-time freelancer who "spend[s:] more than 8 hours of daylight in ... pajamas" and "may be living in a closet in someone else's apartment."  According to this view, "If you have health insurance of any kind, you do not qualify as a freelan...

Poetic prompt

I was pleased and proud to discover a few years ago that my Pennsylvania county, Montgomery, has a Poet Laureate program. A previous holder of this office, David Simpson, once posted a challenge on his blog for people to write poems about their first memory.

As it turned out, my first memory was not something I felt like sharing publicly. But that feeling itself formed the foundation for the poem. This is how my poem started:

"My first memory is a lie,
A shadow, the smoke that ghosts are made of...

Glamorous behind-the-scenes info

Yesterday I posted about writer friends, and then in today's reading I came across this:

"Phone rang. It was Dave, a writer friend. We talked for over an hour, mainly about punctuation. He has big plans for the ellipsis. He's mad for ellipses. I tell him, yeah, I have similar affection for the parenthesis ..."
--Sarah Vowell, "Dark Circles," Take the Cannoli

As I read this, I nodded along. What do writers talk about among themselves? Now you know.

Writer friends

Writing itself may be a solitary act, but this week I am especially grateful for my writer friends.  Uppermost in my mind this week: the fellow writer who spent an hour on the phone with me, and the one who made a special trip to come to a signing.  I'm also grateful to the people who've invited me on retreats and shopped in bookstores with me.  The ones who came to my launch party in spite of the snow.  The people who've recommended my book.  The ones who rode the roller coaster before I did...