Last week, while thinking about the first of my new calls to action “To find the truth in deceit and the deceit in truth; either deceive the truth, or unveil the deceit” (I now think reveal works better than unveil), the idea of deceiving truth, along with the blues songs I’ve been studying, got meContinue reading “Dialectic Thinking and the Study of Contradictory Abstractions”
Author Archives: marialberg
How to Read Like a Writer (RLW): A Novel Can Take Many Forms
I did it! I put together all my 4theWords files from NaNoWriMo into one file, formatted it into one double-spaced draft and did a preliminary spell-check to make my novel draft readable. Then I saved it as a PDF so I’m ready for my first read through on my tablet. So, my focus this weekContinue reading “How to Read Like a Writer (RLW): A Novel Can Take Many Forms”
The Week in Review: Reading, Writing, and Abstraction
How was your week? Did you try reading like a writer? I really enjoyed applying the things I learned from The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny to my short story. This week I’ll be talking about The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. I’m enjoying my coursera.org course “The Modern and the Postmodern”Continue reading “The Week in Review: Reading, Writing, and Abstraction”
Reading Like a Writer Attempt 2: The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny
Procedural Tips This week I focused on marking while reading the first time. This focused my intention on reading like a writer, and I could tell I read differently. One quick and easy thing I can do is look at the page count divide that by two and mark the mid-point. Then divide that inContinue reading “Reading Like a Writer Attempt 2: The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny”
How to Read Like a Writer: Narrowing Focus to the Specific Book
How was your week? Did you try reading like a writer? I noticed I’m already reading differently. Choosing the Novels I thought of another way to choose novels to read and study. When my novel is finished, edited, and polished, I’ll be looking for an agent. Once I find some agents that are looking forContinue reading “How to Read Like a Writer: Narrowing Focus to the Specific Book”
Juxtaposing Last Year’s Lines
After We Said Goodnight We have said goodnight butbuckle up and hold on as hearts buckle The rope hangs from the reaching branchHead held high, enjoying the sun on my shoulders,I begin my journey At my magical realism hotel wherethe air is thick with itagitation nags, it’s tickling The fan whirs in the windowIn theContinue reading “Juxtaposing Last Year’s Lines”
Reading Like a Writer Attempt 1: The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry
Procedural Tips After reading The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry to the end, I filled out the questions I could by memory. The first exercise where I hunted for examples from the book was looking at how each chapter ended. I found this a useful exercise and a good way to start reviewing theContinue reading “Reading Like a Writer Attempt 1: The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry”
Dream Imagery
The poetics prompt at dVerse Poets Pub is to “write a poem inspired by a vision, dream, or both.” I tried to do the spoon in the bowl trick to induce a dream state, but all I saw was a big orange square of color with a read shadow moving around, so I decided toContinue reading “Dream Imagery”
Expanding the Study of Contradictory Abstractions
Not Just Nouns Anymore While reading The Linchpin Writer by John Matthew Fox, I came across this interesting sentence: “You should use your descriptions to do one of two things: to either defamiliarize the familiar, or to familiarize the unfamiliar. “ The form of that sentence, with its contradictions, reminded me of “find the despairContinue reading “Expanding the Study of Contradictory Abstractions”
Quadrille Monday: A Bold New Poem
Today at dVerse Poets Pub it’s quadrille Monday which means we are writing poems of exactly 44 words and today, De Jackson has offered the word “bold” to inspire and be included in the poem. “Bold” is also a great word to inspire today’s images. Life of the Party I want to be bolda grandContinue reading “Quadrille Monday: A Bold New Poem”
Experience Writing 