Bad Advice
Bad Advice Wednesday: Get Me To the World on Time (Six Thoughts on Place in Writing)
categories: Bad Advice / Cocktail Hour
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Bill and Dave are thrilled and honored to have the prolific and brilliant Luis Alberto Urrea doling out today’s advice. This talk was originally delivered at the Tin House writer’s conference in Portland, July 2013.
Take it away, Luis:
Here’s what I’ve been thinking: In the real world, we can only visit Place, but in the alchemy of writing, we become Place, and Place becomes us.
I–My First Thought.
I am here to discuss Place in writing. I imagine you are expecting to hear about form and function, critical choices and possible pedagogical formulations to further your theorems about the primacy of Place in modern literature. Well, didn’t Aristotle say that Place is that part of space where you are what is? If he didn’t, he should have.
At its basest level, Place is imagery. Setting. Or, God help us, it is metaphor. Thus do hacks torture us, making the world into bad greeting cards. For a masterful version of Place-as-more-than-setting, see Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path.” I defy anyone to use landscape and weather and color and sound any better.
Signs and Portents Along the Way
categories: Bad Advice / Cocktail Hour
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Tony Simmons
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — We journeyed to the City of Iron recently to visit an ailing relative at UAB hospital, and this flatlands boy had to get used to hills again. Everywhere I turned was a reason to recalibrate my expectations. Bundled in heavy coats and scarves, we walked quite a bit, leaving the hospital to go to the place we overnighted, or seeking out dinner or a pharmacy, or just to see what was over the next hill. Continue reading →
Bad Advice Wednesday: Taking It Easy Is Harder Than It Looks
categories: Bad Advice / Cocktail Hour
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On the Road Again with Mike Land
More than a year ago, while mired in the mentality of a busy semester at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, I hastily crafted a sabbatical proposal. My vision was limited by the campus work in which I was immersed – my project was inspired by a book I taught, Po Bronson’s What Should I Do With My Life?, as well as my administrative position, Director of Community Service Learning. Given my role on campus, I argued, it only made sense for me to spend a semester interviewing people about the role service played in their lives; I would do this as I drove from coast to coast, doing volunteer work of my own along the way. I’d write about it in both blog and book forms. Continue reading →
Bad Advice Wednesday: Get to Work
categories: Bad Advice / Cocktail Hour
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Just do it!
I took questions from a group of high school students recently, and a kind of inquisition followed. One kid, who’d seemed kind of sleepy as I spoke, said, Where do you get your inspiration? From all around, I answered glibly. All around what? the kid asked. All around my day, even from this moment now. Talking to us? They all thought that was hilarious. What will you write about us? Well, that’s not the point, I said. The point is, that inspiration is, true to its etymology, just a kind of breathing, a being breathed. The old timers thought by God, thus the word. But to me it’s the moment, the right now, that breathes us. Continue reading →
Bad Advice Wednesday: Why Not Say It? (UCLA Q and A with Pam S.)
categories: Bad Advice / Cocktail Hour
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Robert Lowell
Recently writer and professor Shawna Kenney invited me to take part in an online class at the UCLA Extension Writers Program, visiting virtually by way of Blackboard. Students asked questions, I did my best to answer, and discussion ensued. I got permission from a number of students to use their questions, and I got permission from myself to use my answers. First up was T. Locke. This week, it’s virtual classmate Pam. Continue reading →
Bad Advice Wednesday: Why, Thank You Sir. I Do Have Great Tits!
categories: Bad Advice / Cocktail Hour
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I was walking along the side of a road in rural Maine, on a hot July day. A rusty pickup truck, its rattle announcing its presence before the man in the driver’s seat became visible, slowed as it approached.
“Hey, big ol’ titties!”
I stood there, shocked, as the car sputtered off into the distance. Not because of what had been said. Because I had spent years living in a big city and it suddenly occurred to me that this was the first time in weeks that something like this had happened. Continue reading →
Bad Advice Wednesday: UCLA Q and A, with Sara-Kate
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Recently writer and professor Shawna Kenney invited me to take part in an online class at the UCLA Extension Writers Program, visiting virtually by way of Blackboard. Students asked questions, I did my best to answer, and discussion ensued. I got permission from a number of students to use their questions, and I got permission from myself to use my answers. First up was T. Locke. This week, it’s virtual classmate Sara-Kate. Continue reading →
Flash Tips for Writing Flash Fiction Friday
categories: Bad Advice / Cocktail Hour
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Meg Pokrass in full Flash gear
Tips for writing flash fiction:
1. there really are no tips
2. Write fast and furious for the first draft Continue reading →
Bad Advice Wednesday: New Year’s Resolutions for Writers from Dave and Bill
categories: Bad Advice / Cocktail Hour
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Bill and Dave, New Year’s Eve 1914
Dave: 1. Set your self a rigorous schedule and follow it for a week (Sunday included). You may just get a productive week out of it, but–who knows?–the routine might kick in and you’ll end up with a productive year.
Bill: 1. Try working at some radically different time of day. Continue reading →
Bad Advice Wednesday: UCLA Q and A, with T. Locke
categories: Bad Advice / Cocktail Hour
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My Virtual Presence
Recently writer and professor Shawna Kenney invited me to take part in an online class at the UCLA Extension Writers Program, visiting virtually by way of Blackboard. Students asked questions, I did my best to answer, and discussion ensued. I got permission from a number of students to use their questions, and I got permission from myself to use my answers. First up is T. Locke.
Q. Hello Bill,
Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts with our class. It has been such a pleasure to get to know you through your book! It’s a treat to have you in here in person, so to speak. Here are my questions. Continue reading →
