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The author as housekeeper
“Housekeeping” isn’t just a matter of dusting windowsills and vacuuming the carpet. For an author, it’s an obligation, to protect readers from getting lost in the midst of a narrative full of characters, details and shifting locations. by David Benjamin My mother didn’t have time for housework. After forsaking an ill-fated teenage marriage, Mom……
Read MoreWhere do you get your ideas?
Where do you get your ideas? Everybody has ideas, both mundane and fantastic. They run constantly through our heads. When I was sixteen, I remember leafing through ahigh-school yearbook whose editors had captioned, with exceptional wit, every photo in the gallery of seniors. One thumbnail, beneath a boy with a smirk of mock worldliness, has……
Read MoreThe Midwest: American Literature’s Diaspora
This issue of Write Away examines a quandary: Why is there a Southern school of literature, but no equivalent Midwestern pantheon? It is arguable that the heartland has produced more great storytellers than any region in America. Why doesn’t the midwest get any respect? The Midwest: American Literature’s Diaspora Among a hundred threads of American……
Read MoreThe Elements of Character
As a young writer, a dilemma that troubled me was characters. I was busily writing sketches populated by imaginary people. But I wondered, are these guys, and girls, characters? Had I “developed” them, or did they just pop into my head, like visions of Milky Way bars and the Playmate of the Month? Since then,……
Read MoreA novelist’s guide to dining in Paris
A novelist’s guide to dining in Paris One advantage of writing fantasy fiction is that you get to make up an entire world, with made-up heroes, damsels, villains, dragons, and an imaginary history. No fussy editor or reader can fact-check your backstory or expose your topographical blunders. On the other hand, when setting a story……
Read MoreThe allure of formula in mystery prose
The allure of formula in mystery prose Formula is the resort of the mediocre writer. It is, however, a resort visited occasionally by even the best of authors, especially when a story — faithful at first to formula — veers off the hackneyed path and springs a surprise. The two genres most subject to formula……
Read MoreWrite Away – Write about yourself, but not about your self
Write about yourself, but not about your self I am not me, nor are you you. At least not when you sit down to play the keyboard. Every “creative writing” instructor, usually on the first day of class tells his or her students to “Write about yourself.” The basis for this rubric is that a……
Read MoreThe poker game: A fable
The poker game: A fable By David Benjamin “Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.” — Nelson Algren DEADWOOD — The game was so big that the man called Doc was sitting in, elbow-to-elbow with…
Read MoreMick and Goofy have a backup plan
Mick and Goofy have a backup plan By David Benjamin “If judges were just secret legislatures declaring not what the law is but what they would like it to be, the very idea of a government by the people and for the people would be at risk.” —Justice Neil Gorsuch GOOFY: Jeez, Mick, I’m worried.…
Read More"… in the service…"
“… in the service…” By David Benjamin “We were just doing our jobs, helping our country win the war.” —Lt. Col. Richard Cole, one of the Doolittle Raiders MADISON, Wis. — Sister Caritas had no idea she was creating a monster. One day in sixth grade, she threw down a gauntlet I could not resist.…
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