Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 197
July 16, 2012
4 Very Different Language Sites
I’m preparing to write a short story collection that’s a companion book to the novel I published last year. It’s a much greater challenge than the novel—word research has become my passion… Again… I’ve always been fascinated with words and I’ve admitted here, more than once, that my favorite word is “Word”. I recently spent [...]
July 13, 2012
Writers Often “Chew On Life’s Big Questions” . . .
Sure, there are books and stories that are light and easy to digest. Then, there are the works that need to be well-chewed, while being written and while being read. Then, there are actors like Rainn Wilson, best-known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the TV show The Office. Rainn has a WebSite called [...]
July 12, 2012
Is Workshopping Really Good for Writers?
If someone asked me the question of this post’s title, my first response would be, “Depends on who’s there.”. Did you notice the two periods in that last sentence? Some would say I broke a rule; yet, to me, the quoted sentence needs a period for itself and the sentence it occurs in needs one, [...]
July 11, 2012
Watching The Cycles ~ The Trends In Life…
Writers are attuned to what they call “Arcs”—cycles of character development and plot unfoldment. Yet, some don’t turn around (or, inside-out) and realize they have Arcs in their writing-life… Their characters must reach certain goals and are impeded by certain challenges. So are the writers… The character bemoans a current crisis yet flounders on, finding [...]
July 10, 2012
The Connected Writer
Finally got my new ISP installed and thought this would be a good time to consider some past posts about writers and the Digital Environment. In the post, The Connected Author ~ Writing and TheInternet, I relate the importance of making Real friends with an Internet connection… In the post, Authors Promoting Each Other by [...]
July 9, 2012
New ISP ??
In the middle of installation of a new ISP (Time-Warner)… The old one (Clearwire) may not let me publish this post… In a few hours, all May be well :-) Tagged: Bad Internet Service, Clearwire, Internet, Internet Service Provider, ISP, Time Warner
July 6, 2012
The Character Suit
Reblogged from Sky Diaries: Where do great characters come from? What is the difference between a character who steps off the page and one who is little more than a shade? And how can we be the writer who crosses the divide between the former and the latter? This is a topic big enough for [...]
July 5, 2012
Rules for Writers Are Slippery and Shifty . . .
It’s been said that the best way to learn to write creatively is to read voraciously. So how did all the authors you read learn to write creatively? Obviously, to avoid an infinite regress, there must be another component to writing well. And, if the “rules” for writing are impossible to nail down, the inner-self-factor [...]
July 4, 2012
What Motivates Authors To Write ?
Are there disembodied spirits that give authors ideas? Do the Muses guide the writer’s hand? Is all that an excuse for a more rational process that’s so complex mere mortals fail in attempted descriptions? Back in September of 2011 I wrote the post Why Do HumansWrite? which contains a fascinating explanation by Gwenette WriterSinclair and [...]
July 3, 2012
The Connected Author ~ Writing and The Internet
Yesterday I was out of the loop and I’m just barely back in. My ISP failed and when I finally got back on line my best friend wished me a Net-Happy Day :-) While I was disconnected, I was able to learn some stark truths: Life is not the same for this writer when he [...]
