Author: harmamae
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Why Do Writers Write?
“Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there.” – Thomas Berger, apparently There never are enough good books out there. Good books exists, but once they’re read it’s hard to find another one – so I do write to fill the gap in books I love to read. On reflection, this is maybe one of…
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Be Still and Write
“Many of the aspiring writers I know talk about writing more than they actually write. Instead of setting free the novel or short story or essay that is sizzling at the ends of their fingers, desperate to set fire to the world, they fret about writer’s block or about never having the time to write.”…
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What Would You Attempt to Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail?
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” – Launching a Leadership Revolution* The first time I read this quote it hit me hard, because the answer is – a lot more than what I’m doing now. I can’t count how many times the fear of terrible things happening to me…
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Who Says I’m Qualified to Contribute to Academic Conversation?
So I am in middle of writing a twenty-page paper about Woodstock, which means my writing muscle is pretty occupied right now. (Though seriously, the organizational disaster that was Woodstock is an incredibly interesting topic, and it’s worth reading and laughing about sometime. 400,000 hippies hanging out in the mud, with almost no food and…
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The Crime of Re-Using Plots – Is It A Crime?
Oh no, it’s another mad dash to the airport, where the girl swears she will leave the country forever and the guy insists he’s in love with her, you sigh to yourself. Everyone knows romantic comedies all have the same plot. Why do they even bother making more of them? Well, how many plots do…
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Why Worry if You Can’t Spell in English?
“Ghoti” – an alternate spelling of the word “fish,” usually attributed without evidence to George Bernard Shaw. Possibly thought up originally by William Ollier Jr. How on earth can “ghoti” be an alternate spelling of the word “fish?” Well, if: gh, is pronounced as /f/ as in tough /tʌf/; o, is pronounced as /ɪ/ as in women /ˈwɪmɪn/; and ti, is pronounced as /ʃ/ as…
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The Message on Manhood in Young Adult Novels – Or, What Should We Teach Boys?
“But as we debate ad nauseam whether, for example, Bella Swan is a dangerous role model for young women, we’ve neglected to ask the corresponding question: what does it tell young men when Edward Cullen and Jacob Black are the role models available to them? Are these barely-contained monsters really the best we can imagine?”…
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Happy Birthday, Dracula!
I’ve been sick as a dog all week, with some kind of cold which plugs up my head and leaves me unable to think very clearly. However, I can’t leave Stories and Stuff without some kind of post on Friday, can I? So I’ll just note that yesterday was Bram Stoker’s 165th birthday, and Bram…
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The Debate: Literary vs. Genre Fiction, and Is There a Chasm Between the Two?
When I began submitting stories to fiction magazines, I was amazed to find there was a large gulf between “genre” fiction and “literary” fiction, and that literary fiction was usually considered to be the superior kind. As a person who enjoys reading all types of books, I’d always thought a good story was a good…
Hmm... 