Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 13
May 19, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Make Truth Out of Fantasy
In 1980, Leonard Bernstein gave the commencement speech at Johns Hopkins. He was in the twilight of his career and life. But the composer and teacher still had lessons to deliver: Every artist copes with reality by means of his fantasy. Fantasy, better known as imagination, is his greatest treasure, his basic equipment for life. …
May 12, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Type More Words
The late David Carr was one of the great hires at the New York Times when they were still doing fantastic, deep-dive media journalism. Recovered addict and veteran writer, Carr was a great one for delivering hard-bitten yet inspiring advice. Such as: Keep typing until it turns into writing. No notes.
May 5, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Keep Failing Better
When Paul Auster started publishing his New York City trilogy in the 1980s, he occupied a then-unusual space in American literature. An austere artist of deeply European instincts and a suspicion of the big gesture, he didn’t have the blustering hurly-burly of the 1970s crowd (your Mailers, Bellows, and Roths) and seemed to chart a …
April 29, 2024
Screening Room: ‘Wildcat’
Ethan Hawke’s biopic of Flannery O’Connor, Wildcat, is opening soon in limited release. My review is at Slant Magazine: The O’Connor of Wildcat is a contentious outsider who seems ill at ease in her own skin. Too country Southern and gawky for New York, and too Catholic and idiosyncratic for the hidebound, keeping-up-appearances Protestantism of her native …
April 28, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Taylor Swift’s Pens
So now that Taylor Swift is name-checking Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith, creating library-themed pop-ups, and igniting fierce debate over apostrophes, it seems time to welcome her to the literary community, yes? In a sense, Taylor was already here, as is any songwriter who tries to write lyrics with story, character, and meaning rather than …
April 24, 2024
Shameless Self-Promotion: ‘The Writer’s Year’
You may have noticed those ‘Writer’s Desk‘ posts which have been appearing on this site for a few years now. Or not (lot of content out there). In any case, a little while back I thought it made sense to try and put some of these ideas to paper. Since I’ve been doing some writing …
Continue reading Shameless Self-Promotion: ‘The Writer’s Year’
April 21, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Apprentice for Life
You would think that writers like David Baldacci have it easy. Forty-something novels, a ridiculous percentage of which are bestsellers; clearly writing another one is just like rolling out of bed. Right? Yeah, no, says Baldacci: You have to ask yourself why you want to be a writer and you have to have passion in …
April 14, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Keep it Loose
Sherwood Anderson, the roustabout journeyman who scrabbled around in manual labor and lived in a Chicago tenement before achieving fame with Winesburg, Ohio and then never managed to top himself no matter how much he wrote, had ideas about what made for subpar writing: What did Anderson approve of? Keeping it “loose.” Nice and specific, …
April 7, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Read Some Poetry
Lois Lowry does not write poetry. But she finds it useful. Here is what she said about poetry and writer’s block: Blocked or not (and in truth I seldom am), I begin each day by reading poetry. I’m not a poet myself. But somehow to enter that world where language is distilled and precise, and …
March 31, 2024
Writer’s Desk: One Day, One Page
Back in 2017, when John Grisham had only sold a few quadrillion books, he very helpfully agreed to jot down some ideas for writing success in the New York Times. A few of these are somewhat self-evident but nevertheless sterling pieces of advice to keep in mind: Do: Write a page every day.Don’t: Keep a …
