letting it all hang out October 23, 2009

writing really does mean exposing your self completely to the reader, even if the piece is fictional, because every idea that takes shape on paper is a reflection of the writer’s  sensibilities, as well as the experience she’s had to be able to formulate those sensibilities into ideas. i think that’s why it’s crucial for [...]

A new favorite line October 6, 2009

I have discovered what is becoming my most favorite line of text in all that I’ve read in my 23 years:
“It was, to reiterate, to stress, to accentuate the point, to leave no doubt, hot.”
The Sex Lives of Cannibals by Troost.
It’s expressive, brief, supremely telling, and syntactically pleasing.
That’s only a snippet of funny from that [...]

writer’s diary October 4, 2009

I sometimes wonder if I was meant to be a tumbleweed. Because my fancies are scattered over a wild and haphazard geography, and it seems too tedious to use jets, planes, or automobiles to get to where I should already exist. I want to just roll on through and out, on to wherever the wind [...]

A few thoughts June 14, 2009

Do I even know how to write anymore? I’m beginning to realize that maybe I never did. As with everything else, writing is an instinct I have, and a skill I never truly developed. I was naïve to think I was good enough not to develop it. Mike Sager told me a long time ago [...]

Writing Pays NOTHING May 11, 2008

Someone please explain to me why writing jobs pay nothing. Every publication wants a person with experience. EVERY PUBLICATION. If every publication wants someone with experience, how is anyone without any experience supposed to get experience? You could take an internship, but those are even more ridiculous. Harper’s magazine offers an excellent internship from what [...]

Wiener Factory November 6, 2007

LA Times – Franchises sucking the local flavor out of Los Angeles
The article above looks more impressive in print, but there it is. It took me a minute to realize that the Wiener Factory in the picture is the same Wiener Factory my mom and I used to go to when we lived in Sherman [...]

Really Long Journalism-Related Ramble October 31, 2007

Maybe that whole running sequence in Forrest Gump is supposed to serve as a metaphor. It’s a pretty random sequence of events - it fits into the movie because everything else Forrest does is just as random – but maybe this part is a metaphor. Am I reaching?
Anyway, I gave my post-grad situation some thought today [...]

and again September 19, 2007

much to my own disappointment (in myself), i’ve stopped journaling. this seems to be a recurring epiphany – “oh, i haven’t written in a while, i should write.” so with each such epiphany, i make a new blog, because i feel as though the change will spur some kind of -ness in me (newness, freshness, ingenuity-ness) that will [...]