Thu
May
23
NYZD
Zach Dionne:
Eventual novelist.
What I've Written
zachdionne at
gmail dot com
Today's Specials:
‣ Novelwriting Notes
‣ QT Eats
‣ Convos w/ Creators
‣ Reads of 2012
‣ Book Spine Poetry
‣ All Louie Everything
‣ Iveremixes
Here There Be Tweets
Wed
May
22
“ When you’re in the middle of [writing] a novel and enjoying a novel, there’s no greater feeling. That’s such a sensation, when it’s going well. But for everyday kind of cheeriness, I’d much rather write nonfiction, to be honest.
Zadie Smith
Tue
May
21
“ If I’d taken on The Dark Tower I would’ve become Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind. It would’ve happened very, very quickly.
Damon Lindelof to Alex Pappademas at Grantland
(via bookoisseur)
Chance the Rapper - “Interlude (That’s Love)”
Happy Friday.
I had so much fun writing for Vulture tonight. I’ve been doing this nightblogger thing for eighteen months and still have such a blast. Thankful every day that site keeps me around.
Anyway. I hope you like Rick Moranis: The Novel: The Blog Post.
Wed
May
8
“ I’ve never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think that the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again.
John Updike. Discovered in a new book called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. It’s as cool as it sounds.
“ [The Great Gatsby] is the only book I have read so often despite failing—in the face of real effort and sincere intentions—to derive almost any pleasure at all from the experience.
New York mag book critic Kathryn Schulz in her luminescent takedown of Gatsby and its golden reputation. Glad I’m not alone. My first time, junior year of high school, was woeful, but I blamed it on the life-changing Catcher in the Rye coming directly beforehand. Second time, in college, as an independent re-investigation, was so-so. Was considering rereading before seeing the movie, but this essay saved me from that fate.
“ By the time I was 11, 12, I’d kind of absorbed the idea that you should spend a little time each afternoon making stuff up and eventually you’d be paid really well for it.
My favorite quote from that Owen King/Joe Hill interview, something Joe said. Such a cool insight into what it’s like not only being a child of Stephen and Tabitha King, but just being a child who thinks they’d like to be a writer. There’s such an insistence in your head that it’ll just work out and be awesome and make you rich.
Mon
May
6
![Jamaica Kincaid talking to The American Reader:
“People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman. But all sorts of people write with strong feeling, the way I do. But if they’re white, they won’t say it. I used to just pretend I didn’t notice it, and now I just think I don’t care. There are all sorts of reasons not to like my writing. But that’s not one of them. Saying something is angry is not a criticism. It’s not valid. It’s not a valid observation in terms of criticism. You can list it as something that’s true. But it’s not critical. You may not like it because it makes you uneasy—and you can say that. But to damn it because it’s angry…. They always say that about black people: ‘those angry black people.’ And why? You’re afraid that there might be some truth to their anger. It might be justified. I promise you, if I had blonde hair and blue eyes this wouldn’t be an issue. No one ever says, ‘That angry Judith Krantz…’ or whatever.
And I don’t seem to care what people think. I write—from the time I started writing I’ve been writing the same way. And people have been saying the same shit about it: ‘She’s angry. The sentences are too long.’ My first short story is one sentence, 300 words long. My writing has always been criticized for this, this, this. I think that people just think, ‘Why the hell won’t she stop it? We’ve told her we don’t like it. She keeps doing it.’ That’s the way I write. It’s never going to stop. And the more it makes people annoyed the more I will do it. And it’s actually really good writing. I’m a good writer. They should just say that: ‘She’s a great writer.’ I am. … They should just say it, ‘This is really a good writer.’ And, ‘A lot of the other shit that you like isn’t good writing.’ [laughter].”
Spent the weekend delighted and awestruck by her new novel, See Now Then, and how little it cares about how a book is supposed to be. Completely honest and explorative and one-of-a-kind.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/cbdbb14b1f09aa85d1ba64eefcaa2964/tumblr_mmd4tvcWnF1qa2kvco1_500.jpg)
Jamaica Kincaid talking to The American Reader:
“People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman. But all sorts of people write with strong feeling, the way I do. But if they’re white, they won’t say it. I used to just pretend I didn’t notice it, and now I just think I don’t care. There are all sorts of reasons not to like my writing. But that’s not one of them. Saying something is angry is not a criticism. It’s not valid. It’s not a valid observation in terms of criticism. You can list it as something that’s true. But it’s not critical. You may not like it because it makes you uneasy—and you can say that. But to damn it because it’s angry…. They always say that about black people: ‘those angry black people.’ And why? You’re afraid that there might be some truth to their anger. It might be justified. I promise you, if I had blonde hair and blue eyes this wouldn’t be an issue. No one ever says, ‘That angry Judith Krantz…’ or whatever.
And I don’t seem to care what people think. I write—from the time I started writing I’ve been writing the same way. And people have been saying the same shit about it: ‘She’s angry. The sentences are too long.’ My first short story is one sentence, 300 words long. My writing has always been criticized for this, this, this. I think that people just think, ‘Why the hell won’t she stop it? We’ve told her we don’t like it. She keeps doing it.’ That’s the way I write. It’s never going to stop. And the more it makes people annoyed the more I will do it. And it’s actually really good writing. I’m a good writer. They should just say that: ‘She’s a great writer.’ I am. … They should just say it, ‘This is really a good writer.’ And, ‘A lot of the other shit that you like isn’t good writing.’ [laughter].”
Spent the weekend delighted and awestruck by her new novel, See Now Then, and how little it cares about how a book is supposed to be. Completely honest and explorative and one-of-a-kind.
