57 words

A writer's woes

April 23, 2021 in Creative Writing, Oulipo, Short form

Today began promisingly….

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“You’ve been speaking to that blasted Freedman, haven’t you?!”

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I’m familiar with a few of the stories in this volume, which features some well-known names such as Raymond Carver, George Saunders, Grace Paley, Ursula Le Guin and Susan Sontag.

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I love the subtitle: A history of thinking on paper (my emphasis). I do think there’s much to be said for writing on paper, and there is no paucity of research showing the benefits of analogue over the digital approach.

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Quick looks: Jane Austen; Write, Cut, Rewrite; Handwritten; The Book At War; From Edtech to Pedtech

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Since I read Northanger Abbey when I was in my twenties, I have to say that in the interim it has much improved. Clearly, Jane must have taken a creative writing course or two because it is now much funnier, more cutting and more modern, what with her stepping outside the story to comment on her characters and the novel form itself.

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Elborough’s central premise is that artists’ travels have always influenced their art – albeit more obviously in some cases than others.

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